The Battle's Just Begun
by eclipsed heart
Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.
1. War Games

AN: Okay, first order of business, THIS STORY IS A SEQUEL. The summary is not lying. If you're interested in this fic, I strongly suggest you go read my story **The Battle of the Exes** first, because this one won't make much sense if you haven't read that one.

Two, this story takes place about eight months after **The Battle of the Exes**. Max pretty much explains between this chapter and the second one. So now, all you have to do is read it!(:

* * *

The Battle's Just Begun  
Sequel to The Battle of the Exes

Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.

**Chapter One: War Games**

I took it all in, the boisterous noise around me. The yelling and screeching, the sound of flesh against flesh, bodies hitting the walls and the floor…

I loved it.

I waited to hear it, the sound that would tell me to go. The door moved.

I finally opened my eyes, throwing myself into the thick of things. I let my leg fly upward, my foot hitting some poor soul's chin. He grunted, but did not cease in his mission. He reached toward me, his fingers snagging my ankle. I punched him in the gut, hearing him _oof!_ as his body fell to the ground.

There was another one at the door, her hair tied up in a loose bun. She was my height, so I mercilessly grabbed said bun and pulled. She screamed and joined her colleague on the floor of my bedroom.

Out in the hall, everything was chaos. I spotted Artemis, shoving one of them down the staircase of my mom's house. Just two feet away was Nudge, knocking another unconscious. I saw Iggy outside of Ella's room, her door shut, and blindly beating the crap out of a third. In the opposite direction, I could see an array of bodies sprawled out on the floor. I noted with dismay that almost half of them were on my side: Izumi, Angel, Dylan, and Pepin.

The bathroom door flew open, almost ripping off the hinges, as an undiscovered whitecoat made his way onto the scene, tackling me. What an entrance.

As he came at me, I got into the position to efficiently incapacitate him, my knee poised up, my fist ready to catch his jaw. It worked. Soon enough, he was moaning and groaning, crumpling to the floor in a neat little pile at my feet. I smirked, dusted my hands off, and stepped over his body.

"You guys handling them over there?" I asked Iggy, Nudge, and Artemis.

Iggy answered, "Yup. I think we got them all"

"Downstairs?"

"Fang's got it covered."

I tried not to show how much I liked to hear his name. Fang, Fang, Fang. The only person who had ever owned my heart.

"Good. Then we should probably get down there."

The three of them nodded, and I glanced behind me at the four others, lying on the ground with the whitecoats.

Iggy led us in our descent down the stairs, skipping over one body as if he could see it. On the other hand, I almost tripped on it.

Fang and his group met us at the foot of the stairs. Gazzy and Lux flanked his sides.

"You guys get them all?" Fang questioned.

"Yeah, we were just on our way to help you guys."

"We don't need any help; they're all down and out."

I looked up the stairs curiously, then back down. "You sure?"

"Positive."

"Then the alarm…"

"I hear him," Iggy interrupted.

"Where?"

"Closet." Iggy walked toward there with purpose in his stride. The rest of us followed cautiously, heading toward the same closet that Iggy and Ella had used as their hideaway so many months before. Eight, to be exact.

Iggy turned the knob, slowly, and the suspense was enough to kill a decent-sized elephant. The door swung open, creaking.

Three whitecoats tumbled out, landing haphazardly at our feet.

We sprang into action, kicking and punching, taking them down. Within seconds, they were disarmed and disabled.

The alarm sounded.

It was over.

Every one of us breathed out a sigh of relief. The whitecoats groaned, some of them rubbing their heads, and rose to their feet. I heard footsteps upstairs, and our casualties were soon in view.

Jeb walked out of the kitchen, a smiled plastered onto his face.

"Good job, guys. For once, you lost less than half of your troops."

I grimaced, not really liking the way he called us "troops."

"How much time?" Gazzy asked anxiously.

Jeb's smile widened.

"You guys took 'em down in…twenty-five minutes and thirty-seven seconds. Congratulations."

Angel and Lux beamed, clapping their hands together. Everyone quietly celebrated this little victory in their own way. I even spied a grin on Fang's lips.

Jeb held up his palm. "Now, before you guys get too excited, four casualties is an awful lot."

Iggy shrugged. "So? It's not like they died for real."

"You're missing the point. If there ever is an attack like this, I'm sure you wouldn't want to lose so many comrades."

Artemis chirped, "Can we just eat now?"

Jeb chuckled. "Sure. Why not?"

The eleven of us, plus Jeb, filed into the kitchen, murmuring excitedly. What would it mean, now that we had finally defeated Jeb's simulation _and_ done it in record time?

The whitecoats, who weren't really whitecoats, all gathered their things together, peeling off their white lab coats, and abandoned the house.

In the kitchen, my mom had prepared food. We all sat at our places at the table, Ella coming in just after us and sitting next to Iggy. My mom sat at the head of the table, opposite Jeb and his girlfriend, Maya.

It was really weird, seeing my dad, in all his zaniness and nerdiness, having a girlfriend. The term was something I usually associated with teenagers, not grown men with daughters.

Fang's hand brushed mine as he passed me the bowl of French fries, sending a tingle up my spine. I had thought that, after being with him again for so long, not to mention growing older and—hopefully—more mature, his very presence wouldn't cause such a stir in me. Obviously, that hadn't changed.

He grinned at me, most likely knowing what was going through my head, and I blushed faintly. His eyes lit up, amused, and I decided I would get him back for that later.

But for now, I would enjoy this, the eerie calm after the storm, the lull in the action. I wanted to take this moment of peace and cup it up in my hands, never to let go.

Letting go. Something everyone has to do.

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AN: AHH! So, two days ago, I (FINALLY) completed the first draft of my novel, leaving it at more than **82,000** words. *PHEW* Now for the not-so-exciting editing process...(I just had to get that off my chest, 'cause I'm saving at as a Christmas surprise for most everyone.) Sadly, though, the novel has made it more difficult than it should be for me to write this story, as the novel was present tense and I want this to stay past tense, and I keep getting confused...but I'll get over it.

So, just like I promised, it's Christmas Eve and I am posting this. If you want to give me a Christmas present, all you have to do is hit the "review" button and write a little something. REVIEW!

And have a very merry holiday season.(:

Best wishes,_  
eclipsed heart._


	2. The Cool Down

AN: I apparently failed to remember to mention last chapter that UPDATES WILL BE WEEKLY. Every Friday. Thus, today, you have a new chapter to read.

OHMYGOSH, it's the last day of the year. HAPPY NEW YEAR!(:

I hope you enjoy this chapter. I do get Max to explain some of the past eight months more, but I also kinda leave it on a cliffie. Oops. ENJOY!

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The Battle's Just Begun  
Sequel to The Battle of the Exes

Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.

**Chapter Two: The Cool Down**

After our late lunch, Jeb announced that he had some business to attend to. It was an amazingly rare thing when his "business" didn't involve us.

He took Maya's hand—he had met her through science (go figure)—and they left, thanking my mom and saying good-bye to all of us, their extended family.

We all helped to clean up after lunch, knowing that my mom wouldn't be too pleased if we left her to take care of it all alone. Besides, with twelve kids working, the kitchen was clean in no time.

Fang rubbed his hands together and smiled at me, one side of his mouth pulling up higher, revealing a shallow dimple.

"Do you wanna come over?" he asked.

In the months following his arrival, it had been decided that if Fang and his little band of mutants were going to stick around, it would not be in the same house. And that wasn't only because neither of my parents liked the idea of so many of us living in the same house as our significant others.

Of course, that did nothing to split Iggy and Ella up.

Anyways, Jeb had met Maya sometime before and become infatuated somewhere. The two of them bought a big house, moved in, and invited Fang's flock to join them. Everyone was sick of sharing a room with so many other people, so they jumped at the opportunity. After all, the houses were only two blocks apart.

Most of our formal training took place at my mom's house, or in some other place that Jeb had arranged for. The other house was usually just used for hanging out.

It was also where Fang and I could be alone, as all the other flock members would be predictably distracted.

I grinned back. "Sure. I'll get the others."

It didn't take long to round everyone up; we all loved going to house number two, with its toys and video games and movies.

Not to mention that Jeb's house was equipped with tiptop security, lifetime guarantee. (And that life was also guaranteed to be long, with the security.)

Once the front door was open, we took to the sky, ten pairs of wings flapping in the late afternoon air. Iggy opted to stay on the ground, taking Ella's hand in his. I knew the pair of them would make it to the house…eventually.

In the past eight months, there had been eight birthdays. Pretty much one every month, which made for a lot of birthday cake. Fang and I had both turned eighteen, becoming the only legal adults of the two flocks. Iggy and Dylan were due to catch up soon, but Iggs first. Izumi had seen her seventeenth birthday, Ella would see hers in three months, Artemis in eleven months. Nudge had turned fifteen almost immediately after Fang and I had made up, followed closely by Pepin's official entrance into teenage-dom. Gazzy and Angel had each turned a year older, becoming twelve and ten respectively, which tied Angel with Lux.

I was amazed that I could actually keep track of all those birthdays.

"You're thinking," Fang stated.

"How'd you know?"

"Whenever you think intensely, your eyes squint and you nibble on your lip."

I opened my mouth to defend myself, and only then did I realize that I had been biting my lip. Oops.

"See?"

I glared at him playfully. "Fine, you win."

"As always."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, outraged.

"Nothing at all. And quit biting your lip—it feels weird then when I kiss you."

I flushed red, the blood pumping into my cheeks. He snickered.

"Well then maybe I'll just chew off my entire lip," I retorted.

"Suit yourself. But then you wouldn't be able to kiss me, either, so you'd be depriving yourself."

I flew as close as I dared to him and whacked him hard on the arm. "So you say. I mean, have you ever kissed yourself? I think I'd be doing myself a favor."

Fang laughed, the sound ringing through the air and flying away on the wind.

"If my kissing's so bad, why do you insist on kissing me?"

"_I_ insist? Pssh! _You're _the one who insists!"

"Oh, really? Fine. Let's see then just how long we can go without kissing each other, and find out who breaks first."

"You sure you wanna make that challenge? You've already lost."

"I doubt it. Soon enough, you'll be craving my kiss." He winked, teasing, and I tried to whack him again, but he flew away, diving down for the landing, which I had almost missed.

I stumbled. Fang smirked.

"See? This no kissing thing is already hurting you."

I glowered at him. "Shut up, Fang."

Gazzy and Pepin had beaten us to the door, and had opened it, letting everyone else in. When it was just Fang and I left outside, they went inside.

Fang put his arm around me as we strolled toward the door. His warmth merged with my own, and I barely suppressed a smile of satisfaction.

"What do you want to do?" he asked as we entered the house.

I shrugged. "I dunno. You?"

"Shall we watch the others fight over the TV?"

"We always do that," I reminded him.

"Why break tradition?"

"Touché."

The coveted TV was really quite gorgeous, for a TV. And there were two gaming consoles, plus DVDs aplenty. Not to mention the cable. And there was only one remote.

Yeah, it was war.

I perched on the counter, which divided the kitchen and TV room. Fang leaned against it, right beside me. Angel and Pepin were wrestling for the remote, and, let me tell you, it was pretty sad. Pepin was getting his butt kicked by a ten year old.

Finally, Izumi came up behind them and, being much taller than either of them, plucked the remote right out of their clutches. She smirked, flipped her hair, and turned the TV to the channel she wanted. I noticed Artemis and Nudge weren't on the scene and rolled my eyes.

"What?" Fang asked.

I gestured to the room around us. "Look who's missing."

Fang shook his head, understanding. "Ah, they're teenagers. Let them have their fun."

"They're hormonal. Who knows what's going on up there." I pointed to the ceiling and the second floor, where the bedrooms were.

"They'll figure themselves out."

"Like Iggy and Ella?"

"Okay, you and I both know that they're not _that_ touchy-feely."

"But they might be following their example."

"Why are we arguing about someone else's relationship?"

"At least we're not arguing about our own, like some people."

Cue Ella's entrance. She stormed in through the front door, steam practically streaming from her ears, and slammed it forcefully. She stomped right past me and Fang to the backyard. I swore I saw tears in her eyes.

Cue Iggy's entrance. He followed her, jogging lightly, and calling out, "Ella!"

Once they were gone, barely disturbing the events in the TV room, Fang turned to me. "You bring up a very valid point."

"I was hoping to."

See, Iggy and Ella might have been the most touchy-feely couple in the flocks, but lately, their relationship had been a tad…unstable. They had arguments and yelled at each other and stormed through rooms.

Hell, they weren't so different from Fang and me, back when we were not on civil terms.

"What do you think it was this time?" I asked quietly, not really expecting an answer, and surprised when I got one.

"Probably the same thing as last time: the mission yet to come."

I nodded in agreement. "Ah. Right."

Ella loved Iggy, that much I could see. And she hated the idea of him being in jeopardy. But Iggy thrived in danger, practically lived for the moments in which his decision could make or break everything around him. And we all knew Jeb had some big thing coming for us, and with all the training, we were sure it would be dangerous.

This made for Ella's worst nightmare.

I jumped down from the counter, but I landed on my ankle wrong and slipped. Fang, being Fang, instinctively caught me.

"You might wanna be more careful," he whispered. He was leaning in close, his breath fanning my face. I tried not to get lost in his eyes, but I did anyway. And I found myself moving toward him…

Then I stopped.

Fang chuckled, helping me stabilize myself. "It looked like you were going to cave there for a second."

"Not on your life. Let's go upstairs."

He cocked an eyebrow. "What for?"

I winked at him teasingly. "I'm not about to let hormones rule this family. We've gotta find Nudge and Artemis."

But before we were halfway up the stairs, the front door opened and Jeb came in, Maya and Dr. Martinez at his sides.

"Can you guys get everyone, please? It's quite important."

The way Jeb looked, exhausted and melancholy, I believed him. I continued upstairs while Fang went to the backyard to round up our large band of merry mutants.

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AN: I almost forgot that this needed to be posted. Probably excitement for tonight.(: I hope you guys are all safe!

By the by, this is something I've been wanting to mention: For those of you who read **Passing the Torch**, my two characters Mab and Gisli actually make a cameo appearance in my novel. They're in chapter three, and my main character watches Gisli propose to Mab. I just really liked the characters and said to myself while I was working with them, "These guys are gonna pop up somewhere else." The novel is currently undergoing some brief editing, and stands at 278 type-written pages.

REVIEWS are like...REVIEWS are like starting out your year with your best friend and the guy you like, which I will hopefully be doing tonight. Hope the last of your year is awesome! And also REVIEW.(:


	3. The Meltdown

AN: Holy fudges, this week went by fast. If time goes this fast, I'll seriously need to get on the writing. For now, though, please enjoy chapter three.(:

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The Battle's Just Begun  
Sequel to The Battle of the Exes

Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.

**Chapter Three: The Meltdown**

We were all gathered in the living room, spilling over into the TV room. Fang and I were front and center, the spokespeople for our flocks. My mom and Maya also sat close by.

"Okay, guys. I think you're finally ready."

I twitched and fiddled with my thumbs. This was what I had been waiting for for the past eight months.

"C'mon, just tell us already," I insisted.

Jeb rubbed his eyes. "You're enjoying this, Max. I don't know how long that will last."

Maya put a hand on his shoulder, soothing him. Obviously, this was hard for him. I didn't understand why.

"You guys are ready for your mission."

Nudge pumped her fists in the air. "Really? Yes!"

"Nudge, please, let me finish."

"Oh, sorry," she said sheepishly, sinking back into Artemis's side.

"Your mission is quite interesting, unlike anything you've ever been presented with before."

"Like I haven't heard that line before," I muttered, rolling my eyes. Still, Jeb had my full attention.

"In this case, we have no idea who the enemy is, no idea what we're up against."

I was taken aback. "What? How can you send us after someone when you don't even know who it is?"

"We have information, but none of it even hints at who we could really be dealing with here."

"What's the information?" Fang asked. "What do we have?"

Jeb pulled out a manila folder, the kind that can be used for anything, business or otherwise. He opened it and took out six slips of papers. On each was a photo and a name, along with some general information.

"These six people have gone missing in the past year. I'm sure you recognize them all."

I leaned in closer, trying to get a good look at the photos. And you know what the scary thing was? I actually _did_ recognize all the people in the photographs. Every single one.

The first one was Brigid Dwyer, the young, brilliant doctor my flock had first met four years ago, on the _Wendy K_. I'd never liked her much, though, because she had always been a bit too close to Fang for my comfort. The missing date on her paper was from ten months ago.

The second photo was of Roland ter Borcht, geneticist gone evil, _way_ evil. He had held my flock hostage four years ago as well. And, for some strange reason, his face swirling into my mind was chased closely by the image of a Snickers bar. Ha-ha. He'd been missing for nine and a half months.

Then there was Marian Janssen. She was supposedly the woman who had created and designed me, claiming to be my mother four years ago. (Jeez, so much happened when I was fourteen.) She'd been gone for seven and a half months.

Anne Walker was the next photo, smiling like she always used to when we got home from school. I could almost smell her cooking, though it wasn't as good as my mom's and I hadn't smelled it in four years. (!) By the date on her paper, she'd been missing for six months exactly.

Photo number five showed William Pruitt, aka, the Headhunter. He had been the headmaster of the school that the flock and I attended while living with Anne. We'd all assumed he was evil, and not just because he was a school principal. Four months missing.

And the very last picture was of Hans Gunther-Hagen, and his arm was around something that had been cut out of the photo. But I saw a lock of golden hair, making me sure it was Dylan in the photo. Dr. G-H had created the newest addition to my flock, designing him to be my "perfect other half." Ha-ha. That obviously didn't work out too well. The Doc himself had been reported missing two months ago.

"Yeah, so I recognize them," I said blandly, trying to hide my growing interest. Most of these people weren't exactly what I considered to be good guys.

"We have been led to believe that all these people have been kidnapped by the same party. However, the question of why crossed our minds. Tell me, what do you think these six people have in common?"

The first thought that graced my mind was that they were all scientists. Then I realized that Anne Walker and William Pruitt didn't obviously fall into that category.

The second thought was interrupted by Gazzy.

"They're all human?" he guessed, grinning.

Jeb shook his head. "No, it's not that general, and it's not really that difficult."

Without changing his expression, Fang answered, very calmly, "They all know personally of our existence."

I realized he was right, even before Jeb confirmed it.

"Yes, Fang. That's correct."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Izumi asked. "I've only ever seen one of them in my entire life."

I remembered a conversation I'd overheard between her and Dylan; they'd both been startled to find out that they'd been designed by the same person, Dr. G-H. Izumi was, of course, a much earlier project, and one that had been abandoned.

"I know that not all of you have met any or all of these people, but at least three of you know every single one of them. And trust me, they all know that you exist. Furthermore, they all know how you work. Three of them designed you and the other three have all studied you intently."

"So why were they all kidnapped by the same person?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We're only theorizing, but we're absolutely positive that it has something to do with all of them being familiar with human-avian hybrids."

"Please explain to me why this is relevant," I requested.

"It seems apparent that someone is doing everything they can to gather all the information they are able to on the eleven of you."

"What?" Nudge and Artemis exclaimed at the same time.

"Whoa, slow down. So this guy is kidnapping people to ask them about us?" Dylan commented.

"Yes."

"And why, pray tell, would he be doing that?" I asked.

"Isn't it obvious, Max? World domination has been attempted several times, but you and your flock have thwarted every attempt unfailingly. So, if someone is serious about taking over the world, the smart thing to do would be to take you guys out of the picture."

"Brilliant," Iggy muttered.

"Yes, it is. So that's why your mission right now is to get these people back, as soon as possible. The enemy probably has buckets of information already, and we can't afford to let them have more. After these six are safe and sound, we stop this enemy."

"Seems simple enough," I said haughtily. It honestly didn't appear to be such a difficult mission. We'd done plenty of rescues.

Jeb raised an eyebrow at me.

"What? Just point us in the right direction," I continued. "Who are we going after?"

Jeb sighed. "Like I said before, Max: I wish I knew."

"What?" Lux interjected. "I thought you were joking about that!"

" I wouldn't joke in this situation, Lux. We don't know what we're up against." Before anything else could be said, Jeb added, "Yet."

"When will we know?" Fang asked calmly. I wanted to know how he could stay cool no matter what. That particular quality of his was starting to make me extremely jealous.

"Currently, we have a few leads. One of them looks quite promising."

"Who's 'we'?" asked Pepin.

"Dr. Martinez, Maya, and myself," Jeb answered. "As well as some of our coworkers."

"How trustworthy are the leads?" Angel questioned. I hadn't expected her to speak up, being so young and all. But, then again, she'd always acted like she was much older than the age she ever was, which was currently ten.

Jeb hesitated. "Not very. We're still checking most of them out, but there is that one that's looking hopeful. That's the one we're going to focus on, and we'll set out to follow it later this week."

"When?" Dylan prompted.

"Two days."

"Is that all?" I asked curiously.

Jeb nodded. "I think so. For now, anyway. Dismissed."

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AN: So tell me what you think. Is this mission any good? What do you think will come of it...? Tell me in a REVIEW.(:


	4. Work it Out

AN: So, I just finished reading the first eight chapters of _ANGEL_, which comes out this Valentine's Day, online. I'm liking it so far. Though I do want to know what happens next, and I'm not entirely sure I can wait another month...

Ahem. Anyway, back to this story. Thanks for all the reviews last chapter. You guys rock. So enjoy the chapter, in all its fluffiness.(:

* * *

The Battle's Just Begun  
Sequel to The Battle of the Exes

Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.

**Chapter Four: Work it Out**

"Max?"

Fang's soft voice never failed to wake me up. I stirred, my eyes fluttering open. The window was open behind him, the moonlight like a halo around his head. I would always leave the window open just a crack, in the case that I wanted to leave, or Fang wanted to come in.

"Hey."

"Wanna go for a fly?" he asked me.

I peered over to where Nudge slept. She was still lost in dreamland.

"Sure," I replied, pulling the covers off of my body. Fang took my hand and led me to the window. We both climbed up onto its ledge and jumped.

"So where are we going?" I asked as we flew. He was a little bit ahead of me, just a couple of feet.

He turned back to look at me. "Your pick," he answered.

I smiled. "How about the edge of town? The little forest there?"

"Alright." Fang took a sharp right, heading in the direction of the woods I'd specified.

We were there in no time, landing smoothly in one of the trees. The leaves rustled as we settled down. Fang leaned against the tree trunk, pulling me with him so that I was between his legs, my back against his chest.

"Mm. Finally," I whispered.

"What?"

"We're alone."

Fang chuckled. "Yeah. We haven't had much of that lately, have we?"

"No. I swear, it's always Nudge and Artemis, or Ella and Iggy…"

"But never the two of us."

"Yeah."

"Well, all we have to do is sacrifice our sleep. And then, in the morning, everyone will be wondering why we're so tired."

"Ha. Oh well. I think it's worth the sacrifice."

"Do you?"

"Yes, I do."

Fang's hand cupped my cheek, turning my face toward him. His dark eyes locked onto mine, so deep and soulful. I almost scolded myself for getting mushy. His hair fell across his forehead, which was close enough to brush against mine.

Then, he snickered.

I socked him. "You tease."

"You're good. I expected you to have caved by now."

"Not a chance."

Fang sighed, releasing his grip on me. "If you say so." Then I felt his lips on my neck.

"Okay, see, that ought to count."

"What? This?" He did it again.

I turned around nimbly, straddling the branch we were balanced on. "Yes! That! That so counts!"

"Nah," he argued weakly.

"I'm telling you, it does!"

"So you're saying that I lose, then?"

"Yes!"

Fang smirked. "So now what?"

"You lost!" I told him.

"Awesome."

Then he kissed me. I was so glad he had lost. He pulled me closer, his back totally against the tree, relaxed. That lazy cow, I thought to myself. But I didn't care.

He broke the kiss, too soon. "That's what you were missing, all this time."

I laughed. "Yes, and things were so wonderful without it."

Fang rolled his eyes. "Yeah, right, that's why you're practically on top of me."

I was about to argue this, when I realized that he was right: my legs were hooked around his.

Why the hell did he always have to be right?

Fang pecked my lips. "See?"

"Not fair. You totally pulled me on top of you."

"No, you did that yourself."

"You egged me on!" I accused.

"I may have started it, but you most definitely finished it."

I frowned. Fang just always had a way to counter me. It could be so annoying.

"Why don't we change the subject? To something you don't make a fool of yourself in?"

I rolled my eyes. "What do you think of this new mission then?"

"I think it seems interesting. Though I do wish that Jeb had done more of his homework."

"You don't like going into this blindfolded," I reworded for him.

"Yeah. I mean, I feel like…Iggy."

I laughed again. "Well I'm sure that Iggy feels perfectly fine with it then."

"Yeah, that's why your sister's so pissed off, remember?"

"Uh-huh. I'm sure Jeb's little talk didn't help that at all."

"Nope. I heard them yelling some more afterward."

"How many times can they argue about the same thing? Doesn't it get a little old after a while?"

"Well, now they have a boatload of new information to argue over."

"True. God, I hope that the rest of our lovebirds don't start acting like them."

"Yeah, that would be too chaotic," Fang added. "But I don't think we'll have to worry about Dylan and Izumi."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I was talking to Izzy a couple of nights ago—"

I bit my lip. I still wasn't extremely fond of her.

Fang used his fingers to pry my lip out of my teeth. "I thought I told you not to do that. Anyway, she was telling me that the two of them decided to just be friends. But very close friends."

"Really?"

"Yep. Friends. Nothing more."

"I'll believe it when I see it."

"You do that."

"Do you think Jeb was serious about how much time we're getting on this?" I asked, effectively changing the subject.

"Well he never has been the most punctual person, but it has taken him ages to work this whole thing out. I think he'll be true to his word."

"So the day after tomorrow…" I muttered, more to myself than to him.

"Yeah. Which means that we should probably get some actual sleep tomorrow night."

"That might be difficult, seeing as I wake up to you half the time, and it's the middle of the night."

"Who ever said you have to wake up?"

"No one. But it's just what I prefer."

"Then see? In the end, it's your choice."

"But you're the one who—No, never mind. I'm not even gonna argue this with you."

"Why? 'Cause you know you'll lose?" He grinned.

I grimaced. "Ha-ha, very funny."

"Whatever. I _was_ going to propose that, since we'll be sleeping in our warm beds tomorrow night, we might as well have some fun tonight. But seeing as you're kinda mad…" Fang swung his legs around so that they were both hanging off the same side of the thick branch, his back no longer against the tree trunk.

I caught on. "Not so fast, mister." I tugged on his jacket sleeve. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Home," he replied simply.

"Oh, no, you don't." I slid closer to him, as close as I could without feeling too awkwardly positioned, and kissed him. I felt his lips curl into a smile against mine, could practically feel the laughter in his throat. I grasped his neck in my hands, gently, of course, trying to ignore that he was a few inches taller than me, even in this position. Fang's arm slipped around my waist, almost as if to make sure that I couldn't fall off the branch. The thought made me smirk.

"We should probably get back," Fang told me eventually. "We've been gone for ages."

I glanced around and spotted the lightening clouds on the horizon, the first rays of dawn.

"You're right," I confirmed. "Let's go."

* * *

AN: I promise the chapters are getting longer. Honest.

REVIEWS are like COLLEGES. There's something good about all of them. REVIEW!


	5. Preparations

AN: Remember what I said about longer chapters? Oh, yeah, I wasn't lying. Next chapter's pretty long, too, and it has a lot of action. ;]

* * *

The Battle's Just Begun  
Sequel to The Battle of the Exes

Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.

**Chapter Five: Preparations**

We all sat in a circle in my mom's backyard, a scene very similar to one I still remembered. But things were different this time around, very different. There wasn't so much conflict, so much contention. Not this time.

The lineup started with Angel. Jeb leaned over and whispered a message into her ear. We all knew the rules, and we didn't try to break them. Angel whispered to Artemis, who whispered it to Dylan, who whispered it to Pepin, who whispered it to me.

The message: "E-N-C-Y-C-L-O-P-E-D-I-A."

I absentmindedly wondered if Jeb had managed to spell the word right, but I wasn't sure I even knew how to spell it. I tried my best to remember every individual letter, like it was its own word. Then I passed the message on to Izumi.

Just months ago, I would have cringed in horror at the idea of having to collaborate on, well, anything with Izzy. But I'd come to realize that she really isn't so bad. Still, she doesn't exactly make my list of favorite people.

She looked at me quizzically, as if to ask, "Are you sure that was right?"

Honestly, I wasn't sure. Her hesitance made me bite my lip, in fear that we would screw this up. I glanced over to Fang, for no particular reason, and saw him shaking his head in disappointment. I then remembered what he had said about me biting on my lip. Old habits may die hard, but that new habit was just about impossible to kill.

The message went on and on around our little circle, until Iggy told Jeb the message he had received from Fang. Jeb's eyebrows disappeared under his hair, which was overdue for a trim.

"Amazing," he began. "That was exactly it."

I grinned triumphantly. "One point for us."

"Well, I'll see if I can stump you guys yet," Jeb decided. And the game continued on.

Jeb threw messages at us like: "triskaidekaphobia," "anthropologist," "K-A-L-E-I-D-O-S-C-O-P-E-S," "wobbly worn worthless watery wormwood," and "pulchritudinous." I actually questioned the realness of a couple of these words, which I looked up later and found to be legitimate words.

I could tell Nudge was struggling with the last word. Her lips were at Fang's ear for what seemed like half a century, and…was that _jealousy_ bubbling up in me? Nah, couldn't be…could it? I shoved the feeling away, watching as she tried to sound out the word: pul-chri-tu-di-nous. Such a freaking complicated word for a simple message.

Fang nodded, understanding her jumbled words somehow. He told it to Iggy, who passed it on to Jeb.

Jeb grinned. "You've got me. Six-zero. You guys win."

I could almost feel my eyes bugging out. We had never won so completely. Jeb had always managed to stump us with some obscure word, at least once.

"You guys will definitely be ready for tomorrow. We leave in the morning!" Jeb announced.

{[(/*\)]}

Though I stayed up for most of the night, expectant, Fang never came. I remembered what he had said the previous night, about us needing our sleep. But no matter how long I shut my eyes, no matter how much I cleared my mind, I couldn't find sleep. I almost got out of bed, jumped out the window, and flew over to Fang's, but I didn't want to wake him if he was asleep.

Finally, when my clock read 1:46, I gave up. Fang had a room to himself anyway, and he always woke me up. I let myself fall from the window for a moment, before snapping my wings out and feeling them catch the cool night air. I felt too awake, like there was adrenaline pumping through me in anticipation of what was to come with the new day.

Fang's window was open. I swooped in smoothly, perching on the window sill.

"Hey, Max," he whispered. He was tangled up in his sheets, just as awake as I was.

I pulled my wings in a bit, jumped down, and strode over to his bed. "Hey."

Fang scooted over, making room for me. "Couldn't sleep?"

"Not a wink," I replied.

"Neither can I."

"Well, maybe now we'll be able to sleep," I told him. I bit back a yawn, making Fang laugh.

"Your plan's working already. Let's hope your luck holds tomorrow, too."

"Let's."

We were asleep within minutes, our bodies holding each other, protecting each other.

And we would soon need that protection.

{[(/*\)]}

I felt incredibly refreshed when I woke up, in Fang's bed. My arms were wrapped around him, my face peeking over his shoulder. I felt his lips on my hair, making me smile.

"We should probably get up, you know," he told me.

"Mm… But I like it so much here." I wanted to stay there with him forever.

"Max, Jeb said we were leaving today."

"Aw, crud. You're right." I sat up slowly, disentangling myself from Fang.

"Yep. So I'll see you in a bit?"

"Yeah." I kissed his lips lightly, getting out of the bed. The window was still open, the curtains partially pulled, letting the first rays of sunlight filter through.

When I landed on the window sill to our room, I heard Nudge yelp. Then, "Oh, _there_ you are, Max. I was starting to think you'd gotten kidnapped again."

I grimaced. "That's not gonna happen. Is anyone else up?"

"I don't know. I just woke up like ten minutes ago."

"Okay. Well, you do your thing, kiddo, and I'll get everyone else up." I ruffled Nudge messy hair on my way out, ignoring my own sloppy state. I knocked on the door to Gazzy and Angel's room, passing over Ella's door. Gazzy opened up, rubbing his eyes.

"Hey, Gaz. Up and at 'em. Is your sister awake?"

He nodded. "Yeah. I think she's downstairs already."

Of course, I thought to myself. "Alright. You've got ten minutes to get to the kitchen, got it?"

"Uh-huh."

I pounded on the door to Iggy and Dylan's room, knowing that they probably weren't awake yet. I was greeted by a couple of groans and grunts, before Dylan opened the door.

"You're kidding me, right?"

"Nope. Time to get up. Tell Iggs ten minutes," I said cheerfully.

"Ugh." And then Dylan shut the door in my face. I shrugged. Guys can be so grumpy.

I retreated into my room to get dressed, because Nudge had apparently beaten me to the bathroom. I hoped that the girl would wear something sensible.

I was in the kitchen two minutes early. Angel and Iggy were the only other ones there, sitting at the table, each of them sipping a cup of coffee. I ran my hand through Angel's curls and said teasingly, "You know, with all that coffee, you'll never grow."

She shrugged. "So? I'm already taller than most every other ten-year-old I know."

"But you'll be the shortest twenty-year-old you know."

She puckered up her lips, not liking the idea I presented. Then she took another sip. "No, I won't. You drink more coffee than I do."

I rolled my eyes. This kid…

"I can make something if you want," Iggy offered. He was awake, I could tell, but he looked sorta sad… I remembered that he and Ella had been arguing again.

"If you want to, sure." I sat down.

Iggy grinned. "Well I'm not about to hand the spatula over to you." He got up and started rummaging through the fridge.

I was confused. "The what?"

Iggy turned to me and rolled his cloudy eyes. "Never mind."

Angel giggled.

I crossed my arms.

Dylan came down then. "Am I late?" His hair was damp, from what I guessed was a recent shower.

I glanced at the clock. "Yep."

He frowned. "Whatever. It looks like Iggy's cooking up something good."

"You'd better believe it," Iggs replied, closing the fridge with his foot, as his hands were full.

Gazzy came in next, sitting down without a word. He was wide awake, though, and the mad glint in his eye let me know just what he'd been working on. For months, he and Pepin had been working on some grand project that no one knew about. But I hoped that, whatever it was, it would come in handy, and preferably not flammable.

Nudge was the last of my flock in the kitchen, looking completely frazzled.

I glanced at the clock. "You're late. Like, really late."

"Sorry, it's just that I couldn't get my brush through this one knot, so I decided to take a quick shower, but then there was no more conditioner. And…" She trailed off, knowing by now that I didn't want to hear it.

"What's for breakfast, Iggs?" I asked, changing the subject as Nudge sat down.

"Blueberry pancakes," he replied, cracking an egg into a bowl. I swore that I could already smell the mix, hear it sizzle as it hit the frying pan.

"Awesome. So, we have no idea what time we'll be leaving, as Jeb failed to mention that. I hope you guys are all ready to go with a moment's notice?"

There was a collective nod, and a "yes" from Iggy.

"So if the house was attacked at this very instant, or the house caught on fire, we could pull an up-and-away and you'd have everything you need?" I challenged.

"Um…"

"I thought so. Now go finish packing! Only essentials!" I ordered, watching the other four who were sitting at the kitchen table scramble up from their seats. Iggy stayed put, as did I.

"You ready?" I asked him.

Iggy nodded, pouring the first pancake onto the pan. It sizzled, just like I had imagined. "More or less. I've been otherwise…preoccupied."

I bit my lip. This had the potential to be a very awkward conversation…

But he was one of my flock, and he needed someone. So I sucked it up and asked, "How's that going?"

"Ella?"

"Yeah."

"How do I know you won't go spilling your guts to her?"

"Iggs, I've known you forever. Can you honestly say you don't trust me?"

He thought about it for a moment. "No, I can't."

"Okay."

He sighed. "It's just…ugh, I don't know. Everything used to be so perfect, and then she started getting all protective. I mean, isn't that supposed to be _my_ job?"

I refrained from making any comments, particularly ones about how sexist Iggy can be.

"Ella's not that complicated, but I just wish that she would get off my back. I'm still alive today, aren't I? I seriously don't think that this thing, whatever it is, is gonna kill me."

"I'm sure it won't. And I'm going to be making sure that every member of this flock, and the other flock, gets out of this mess alive."

"And I'll be helping you with that, as your second. But if anything kills me, it might just be your sister. If only I could find some duct tape…"

I choked back a laugh.

"What?"

"Nothing."

There was a knock on the front door, and then it opened. Lux peeked in, her scarlet curls framing her delicate face. Fang stood behind her, his hands on her shoulders. The rest of his flock was with him, as well as Jeb and Maya.

Iggy grinned. "You guys are just in time for breakfast." I turned back to the stove and saw that the pancakes had inexplicably multiplied.

"Where's everyone else?" Izumi asked, sitting down at the table, a few chairs away from me.

"Upstairs, packing the last of their things."

"Is your mother up, Max?" Maya questioned.

"I'm not sure."

Lux, always energetic, volunteered to go find her. Pepin silently crept after her, no doubt to find the Gasman. I was still curious as to what they were up to, and I still had no idea.

"Eat fast," Jeb said. "You're leaving in an hour."

"Alright. That gives us plenty of time." I got up, grabbed a plate from the cupboard, and speared a couple of pancakes for myself.

"Save some for the rest of us," Fang teased.

I resisted the urge to stick out my tongue at him like an eight-year-old, but I knew he would have some snide comeback, and it would most likely embarrass me.

{[(/*\)]}

My mom hugged me tight. "You be safe, you hear?" she ordered. I could tell where I got it from. The worry, I mean.

"Don't worry, Mom. We'll be back and making a mess of your house again before you know it."

Ella hugged me, too, though I knew she was pointedly ignoring a certain member of my flock. Her eyes were still red and puffy, and I knew she'd been crying.

"I'll miss ya, sis," she told me.

"I will, too, Ells." Then I whispered in her ear, "He'll be fine."

She didn't reply to that.

I shook Maya's hand in a somewhat awkward moment. I still hadn't taken the time to really get to know her, but she seemed nice enough. I then watched as Iggy tried to say something to Ella, who responded by retreating up the stairs. Iggy rolled his eyes and sighed in defeat. He wasn't getting anywhere with this.

We all walked outside, to where Jeb was waiting with our instructions.

"Okay, guys. Our lead tells us that we're going about one hundred and ten miles northeast. There, the alleged culprit is holding his main headquarters, under the guise of an office building with minimum security."

These guys were just asking to get their asses kicked.

"Infiltration is recommended at night, for the best results. But, in the end, it's your choice. Max, Fang, you guys are in charge, as you know. I expect that you'll make the best choices to keep your flock safe. I also recommend that you take two separate routes, in case you're being followed. One should be quick and efficient, with as few stops as possible. The other should be longer, with as many detours as you deem necessary."

I saw Izumi nudge Fang, who then said, "We'll take that one. Maybe we can stop by and see the Grand Canyon."

Jeb nodded. "Alright. Max, you and your flock will take a more direct route. The rest of the information you need to know is in these envelopes. Open them only when you are past the Arizona border. Remember: there _is_ a possibility that we have this all wrong. You may not find anything, so don't jeopardize yourselves looking for nonexistent clues. But if you do find something important, good. We need all the information we can get."

"What if someone…?" Angel asked fearfully. I knew it wasn't normal for her to be afraid. Of _anything_.

Lux continued for her. "What if someone is captured, or injured, or…killed?"

"Do what you can to rescue them, but not at the cost of your own life," Jeb replied. "I've told you before that it's bad enough to lose one of you, but two would be a tragedy."

I knew for a fact that that wasn't what Jeb had originally said, but I held my tongue.

"Good luck."

Eleven pairs of wings were unsheathed, and we all launched into the air.

* * *

AN: And the action shall at last begin!

By the by, the words from the game are all legit. Look 'em up if you'd like.

Hmm, so, just for the heck of it, what are some of your guys' New Year's Resolutions? Mine include: losing weight, choosing a college, and participating in NaNoWriMo. If you want, send yours in a REVIEW.(:


	6. The Ambush

AN: Thank you to the...eight (8) people who reviewed the last chapter. Your feedback is much appreciated.(:

Thank you to the other people, who didn't review, for (hopefully) reading the chapter. Here is another one for your enjoyment.

* * *

The Battle's Just Begun  
Sequel to The Battle of the Exes

Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.

**Chapter Six: The Ambush**

The moment we were out of Arizona, my flock and I stopped for a break, and I eagerly opened the envelope. Inside was the specific location we were headed to, as well as some more information. I read it aloud.

"'The place you are going to is located on the sixteenth floor of the building at the corner of Main and Maple.'" Jeb gave the details of the city, and where we could find food and shelter. "'If you wish, you may use the money, found inside this envelope, to stay at a hotel. Please do use it for food, as you will no doubt need your energy.

"'The office building closes up at nine, and its doors aren't unlocked again until seven-thirty in the morning. There are two security guards on each floor, though we have no idea what to expect guarding the sixteenth floor. If our target is involved in science, the guards may not be…human.'"

I looked up at my flock. Angel appeared uneasy. "Don't worry, kiddo. Whatever it is, it probably isn't tougher than an Eraser," I said, in an effort to comfort her. Of course, it did nothing to loosen the knot that was forming in _my_ stomach.

I continued, "'This floor may hold anything from the name, or names, of who we're looking for, to information on their plans, to the missing persons we need to retrieve. Anything at this point will be helpful, just don't take too many risks. If you hear someone coming, hide or run. We don't want to leave any evidence behind of your visit, and that includes bodies.'"

I frowned. "A bad guy's a bad guy, Jeb. We might as well take them out while we can," I muttered to myself.

Iggy cleared his throat. "Do you mind continuing? You can talk to yourself later."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever. 'Work quickly, get out quickly. I have no doubt that you and your flocks will be able to expertly plan this infiltration, after finding each other once you've reached your destination. I wish you luck. Jeb.'"

"Is that it?" Gazzy asked.

"Yep."

"Kinda pathetic, don't you think?" Iggy commented. "I mean, how are we supposed to find Fang and the others?"

I plucked a feather from his extended wings, making him jump a couple inches. "Ow!"

I smirked. "We already drop feathers like crazy. They're smart enough to figure out if the feathers are from regular birds, or us. So once we figure out where we're staying, we'll make a little trail of feathers."

"Cool! It's like _Hansel and Gretel_," Nudge said.

I nodded, even though I'd never read the story. "But for now, we have to get there as fast as we can. Let's move!"

{[(/*\)]}

We waited for Fang and his flock for three days. Because we had become so pampered over the years, sleeping in beds every night and all, we decided to get a pair of motel rooms with the money Jeb had given us. And it was a _lot_ of money.

I had been mentally planning how things would happen, using the blueprint Jeb had stuck in the envelope, but failed to mention in the letter. It showed the various rooms and offices on the sixteenth floor, as well as windows, doors, stairwells, and elevators.

We were all bored out of our minds. The TVs in our rooms, which were connected by a door on the wall they shared, stayed on. The beds stayed unmade. We would always order pizza, or Chinese takeout, and the cartons were strewn across the floor. When we heard the knock on the door of the room I was sharing with Nudge and Angel, we all sprang up, except for Angel, who just said, "Calm down."

I brushed some crumbs off of my shirt, watching them fall to the worn carpet that covered the floor. I shut one eye and used the other to look through the little peephole in the door. All I could see was a little crown of auburn hair. Lux.

I undid the locks as fast as I could, excited and relieved to see them here. Judging by the smile that had been immortalized on Lux's face, everyone was fine.

"Hey, kiddo," I said, leaning down to hug her.

"Hey, Max. Glad we found you."

I looked around. "Where is everyone else?"

Lux glanced over her shoulder, and Artemis came around the corner. "What's up?" he called, as if answering a call.

"I found them!" Lux exclaimed.

Artemis grinned and walked over. Following him came Pepin and Izumi.

The questions was lodged in my throat. "Where's…?"

Fang suddenly appeared to my right, literally appeared, like, from _thin air_. I couldn't help but smile to see him safe.

"Right here, Max."

I opened the door wider. "Come on in, guys. Everyone else will be glad to see you."

Lux darted past me, rushing straight to Angel. The two of them giggled gleefully as they hugged. Nudge scooted over to make room for Artemis on the bed she'd been lounging on. Pepin skulked over to where Gazzy and Iggy were. Izumi and Dylan were already sitting next to each other, but nothing in their positions suggested anything more than friendship. I mentally shrugged, deciding that Fang was accurate in what he had told me days before.

Fang was the last one into the room, and he kissed my hair as he passed. "That was quite a clever thing you did, leaving behind the trail of feathers."

"Couldn't have you guys getting lost."

"You have any idea how this is all gonna go down?"

"Yup. It's all in here," I told him, pointing to my head.

Fang grinned. "Then let's get down to business."

{[(/*\)]}

The next night, all of our planning, and Jeb's planning, and the planning of whoever else had been working on this, was put into action. Each member of my flock had been staking out the building ever since we'd arrived in the city. We knew which guards were at the main entrance: their names, what they looked like, how many kids they had, and their favorite kind of donut. And you can figure out everything you need to know about a person by the kind of donuts they eat.

Most importantly, we knew which window the janitor always forgot to close and lock.

Fang and I were each going to search inside, on the sixteenth floor, along with a member from our flock that we had chosen. I picked Nudge, and Fang decided on Pepin. Iggy and Izumi were each going to be circling the building from the seventeenth floor up. Dylan, Gazzy, and Lux were circling from the fifteenth floor down. Artemis and Angel were charged with following us in to make sure things were safe, and Angel would just use her delightfully convenient mind control powers and freakishly angelic looks to deter anyone who gave us trouble. She and Artemis would stay inside the building, but had been instructed to not set foot on the sixteenth floor, unless we were in desperate trouble.

We had everything covered. I easily found aforementioned window and watched as Fang first went inside to make sure the coast was clear. Nudge and Pepin followed him. Then I ducked inside, hearing the brief _swoosh_ of Artemis's and Angel's wings.

It was dark inside, just as we had suspected it would be. There were various hums and shadowy little noises scattered all around in the darkness. Fang put his hand on my shoulder, startling me.

"Shh," he scolded.

I saw Nudge a few feet ahead, to my left. Fang was behind me, Pepin at my side. We were all accounted for.

"Clues," I mumbled to myself. "Look for clues."

The others seemed to hear me, moving forward swiftly and silently. We knew our mission, and we had every intention of fulfilling it.

I heard small footsteps above us. My only guess was that Angel and Artemis had found their way inside.

My eyes focused on something shiny: the elevators. I meandered toward them, to see what floor we were on. The thirteenth.

"Don't most office buildings, like, _not_ have a thirteenth floor?" Nudge whispered.

I shrugged. "Guess these guys aren't superstitious."

We found the stairs a little further on, opening the door slowly and quietly, not making a sound. The stairwell had one flickering light on this level, and was deserted.

"Let's move," I said.

We dashed up the stairs, quickly, but we managed to keep our steps silent as we went up, up, and up.

Floor 14. Floor 15. Floor 16. I stopped. This was it.

The floor was empty, but it wasn't as dark. There were doors aplenty, lining a tiled hallway. At the very end, there was one light.

I glanced left, and then right, where there were shorter hallways.

"Nudge, Pepin, you guys go left. Fang, right. And I'll go straight," I murmured, knowing they'd heard me when I heard their quiet footsteps walking away. I started down my hallway, listening intently, and that was when things went insane.

There was a crash from behind me, on my left. Nudge and Pepin's hall. I spun around, ready to fight.

It was all just a blur, the little rumble. I dove in, narrowly dodging a punch that Fang had thrown.

The assailants all wore masks, the silly kind that you never see anyone really buy. The faces were frozen in sadistic grins and idiotic frowns. I sneered as let my fist hit one, and heard something crack. It was either the mask, or someone's nose, and I was fine with both.

Nudge screamed, and I whipped around. One of them, wearing a mask that looked like the face of the Joker, had grabbed her by the wings. She was trembling all over. In my distraction, one of them hit me over the head, with a blow that I was sure was supposed to knock me out. Ignoring the throbbing pain, I grabbed his wrist and threw him over my shoulder, surprised at his lightness.

I heard an _oof_, and turned in time to see Fang get punched in the stomach again. He was being held by one of them and punched by another. I remembered that this was not a simulation. These guys wouldn't play fair.

I charged, intent on jumping onto one of them, but my efforts were instantly thwarted, as I flew backwards. Pain shot through my skull, and I just knew that one of them had snatched up my hair. I gritted my teeth to hold in the sound on my tongue.

I watched as Pep's face was smashed into a wall. He was flailing around, trying to stop his attacker, but to no avail. His nose was bloodied and crooked.

One of the other goons had moved toward Nudge as she shrieked again. I kicked at the guy holding me. I wasn't going to watch them suffer anymore. When I missed, I tried to bite the hand he had placed on my throat. It worked, and my teeth sank into his flesh. In response, he punched my jaw.

I looked to the window at the end of the hall, almost hoping against hope for some kind of miracle. That was about the moment Dylan passed by the window, and I cannot recall a time when I was happier to see him. He took one look at me, and the state the rest of us were in, and then he backed away, only to charge forward and kick in the glass of the window.

I watched Dylan as he successfully took down two of the attackers and sent another soaring through the window he had come in from. It wasn't long before Iggy, Izumi, Gazzy, and Lux came in through the same broken window.

We had the advantage again, and I fought back with renewed vigor. He didn't see it coming. As soon as the asshole was off my back (quite literally), I spared a glance around, searching for the way the attackers had come. I spotted a room, the light on and the door ajar. I lunged forward, determined to get there. I dodged through several little skirmishes, and stumbled over an unconscious body. The door was in range…

And then it slammed shut, pulled closed by one of the men in the masks. I looked around at the others, fighting on. Another door opened and more of them poured out.

We were so screwed.

"Fallback!" I yelled suddenly. The word startled me, as well.

But I had no choice. If we didn't get out now, we might not all get out. I watched as Lux delivered one hell of an uppercut and jumped out of the window.

Things became alive again as the assailants desperately fought to keep us in their clutches. I was sure that, by now, Angel had picked up on the thoughts in my head. She and Artemis should have been out by then.

Hands grabbed at me as I fought tooth and nail to get to the window. I had seen two others fall out of it, though I wasn't sure who. Friend or foe, good or bad.

I halted before I reached the window, knowing that I had to see to everyone else's safety first. I nearly shoved Iggy through the window, and Gazzy. Then Izumi, who I once wouldn't have lifted a finger to rescue.

"Dylan!" I screeched. He was kicking some serious ass, and he was the last one of my flock.

Without a word, he finished with one last guy, then ran at me, back out through the window. Then, it was just Fang and me left in the hallway. The assailants seemed to glance around. There were at least a dozen of them, and they easily could've handled us. But instead, they each retreated into the door closest to them.

We were truly alone.

Fang sank down, his back against a wall. His face was bruised and cut, and he was cradling what I was sure was a broken arm. I walked over to him, squatting down next to him.

"Can you fly?" I asked.

He nodded, and I could see the muscles in his back loosen extremely. He'd kept his wings tucked in tight this entire time, probably wary after seeing Nudge.

"Come on," I said, helping him to his feet. He took my hand with his good arm, and we stumbled to the window, falling out as soon as we possibly could.

Mission status: Failed.

* * *

AN: I hope you guys liked this chapter, at least as much as I liked writing it. Bonus points to anyone who can point out what's wrong.

Okay, so I'm currently taking a Creative Writing course at the nearby university (:D) and I'm hoping to pick up lots of pointers from that, which hopefully means that my writing will be visibly improving. Now let's all say, "YAY!"

REVIEWS are like TEXTBOOKS. They are utterly essential, if you want to do any good. REVIEW!


	7. The Break Down

AN: I do believe that from now on, I'll just ignore the traffic page, because it's so disappointing.

Alas, no bonus points, because nobody figured out what was wrong. Oh well. You'll find out soon enough. Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

The Battle's Just Begun  
Sequel to The Battle of the Exes

Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.

**Chapter Seven: The Break Down**

"What the hell do you mean?" I shouted.

Artemis stood before me, absolutely _enraged_. I'd never thought that he, so carefree and happy-go-lucky, could be so incredibly _angry_.

"If it wasn't for you, she would be here!" he shouted back.

We had returned to Arizona, after our run-in with what we could only guess was the enemy we were facing. Artemis hadn't spoken to Fang or I the entire way back, and I didn't blame him for it.

"I did what I could! How was I supposed to know that they would attack us?"

Artemis was taking most of his anger out on me, but I had a feeling that he and Fang had already had a discussion very similar to this.

Er, shouting match.

"You shouldn't have taken her! You shouldn't have separated us!" he yelled.

After we had gotten out of the building, most of us bruised and bloody and, in some cases, broken, I had done a headcount. I had been startled to realize that there were only nine of us.

Nudge and Pepin hadn't made it out.

We'd had no choice but to get back to Arizona as fast as we could. We were too battered to risk another attack, and the situation had sent Jeb's words swimming through my head like a broken record: "Do what you can to rescue them, but not at the cost of your own life."

Saving the pair of them might just have cost us a life or two, in our condition.

The flight back was long, as we had to stop frequently to rest. We had all suffered some sort of injury, except for Angel and Artemis, who hadn't gotten tangled in all the fighting.

"Look, Artemis, don't think you're the only one upset about this! I've known Nudge for her entire life, and I don't intend for that life to be short. Nudge is one of my best, and I _will_ get her back."

Artemis seemed to shrink with each of my words. When I saw the moisture in his eyes, I realized what the real issue here was.

"You miss her," I said softly.

He nodded, but didn't speak.

I hugged him, trying to ignore the fact that he was taller than I was.

"It's okay. We'll get her back, and Pep, too. We'll get them both back."

"I just…I never thought I would be without her. I don't know what I'm supposed to do."

I nodded against his shoulder, and then I felt a tear land on my cheek. It most definitely was not my own.

That was when I wondered if I had been like this for the two years that Fang had been gone.

{[(/*\)]}

I had never seen Jeb look so sorrowful. We all sat around the coffee table in my mom's living room, not really speaking. Maya and my mom sat on either side of Jeb on one couch, with Fang and me at the head of the remainder of our respective flocks. Things were all too quiet, without Nudge's ranting, and Artemis was silent as the grave without her. It reminded me so much of the vow of silence that the flocks had taken in order to get Fang and me to reconcile.

But this silence was much emptier, darker.

"What do we do?" Angel whispered.

Jeb rubbed at his eyes, like they had seen far too much. "Obviously, the lead was a fake. We were tricked."

"It might not have been faked," I said. "Maybe he just knew we were coming."

"But that would mean that there's a leak. We hold on to information regarding you guys so tightly, it would be close to impossible to leak information."

"Well, somebody found a way. And if we don't plug up the leak, who know how much worse things could get," Fang supplied.

Jeb shook his head. "It can't be a leak. We must've done something wrong."

Obviously, I thought to myself. If everything had gone right and we hadn't done anything wrong, we wouldn't be missing two people. But I didn't much like how Jeb so totally slammed down the possibility of a leak.

But it was also obvious to me that we'd more than likely been set up. I mean, come on. The life I led was dangerous, and I knew it. I was on the hit-lists of more people than I'll ever care to count. And I was sure that someone was trying to sabotage me.

The whole incident, however, brought out a courage in Artemis that I don't think any of us had ever seen before. "What went wrong doesn't really matter. What we do, does."

Jeb glanced over at him, like he hadn't been expecting Artemis to speak up. I admit, I hadn't expected it either.

"I realize that, Artemis. That's why, first thing tomorrow, we'll be leaving."

"Who's 'we'?" Gaz asked.

"Val, Maya, and me. We'll be gone for a few days, collaborating with our colleagues to hunt down more clues."

"Where exactly will you be going?" I inquired.

Jeb shook his head. "I can't tell you that."

I sighed. Too many secrets.

"Max, you will be in charge here. I'm sure you can hold down the fort. Fang, you will be in charge back at our house. And remember, don't let Lux into the cookies after five."

I could see Lux frown at this out of the corner of my eye.

"If the two of you wish, you can just all stay in one house."

Fang and I looked at each other, our expressions impassive. But I could see the mischievous glint lurking in his dark eyes.

"That's it?" Artemis seemed to protest, his tone saying that he had expected more.

"I'm afraid so. For the moment, there isn't much that we can do. We don't even know if Nudge and Pepin will be in the same place, and if they are, we'll no doubt be expected if we try to retrieve them. Our elusive enemy may capture others, or someone might be seriously injured, or…"

We all knew the word that hung on Jeb's tongue, the word even he didn't dare say at that moment. The word that might have happened to our two comrades. The word that probably should've happened to all of us before this moment in time.

Killed. I was starting to fear that word, and I could feel that everyone else in the room was fearing it, too.

"It's all we can do," Jeb whispered, like this was his deepest regret: that he couldn't help us more.

Artemis didn't like it. He shot up like a rocket launching into the sky. "We should just go after them! We've had enough time to recover! We've been here long enough!"

We'd been back in Arizona for two and a half days.

"Artemis, I'm sorry. Really."

"That's not going to bring her back!" Artemis shouted, letting his fisted hand come down on the coffee table, the one that Fang, not so long ago, had kicked in rage.

I was starting to feel really bad for that coffee table.

Fang tugged on Artemis's sleeve. "Calm down," he muttered.

Artemis looked like he was about to rebuke Fang, but we all know that you don't turn your anger onto your leaders. It _will_ come back to bite you in the butt. So Artemis sat back down.

Don't think that Artemis was the only one who was distraught: I was, too. I mean, in all my years leading my flock, I had never left someone behind. I mean, sure, I'd lost plenty of people. Angel had been kidnapped, Fang left willingly (twice), Iggy and Gazzy had left with him one time, Ari died, Angel had kicked Fang and I out, Dylan had attempted suicide, Total and Akila had parted ways in order to find a more peaceful life together, my mom had been kidnapped…

But this time, I had left them behind. I was pretty sure that Nudge and Pepin had still been alive when Fang and I retreated. Yeah, I didn't know that they'd been captured, but I should have. Fang and I should've fought and fought until we were absolutely positive, beyond a doubt, that everyone was out.

But we hadn't.

That was when I remembered.

"Jeb…" I started out tentatively, glancing at Fang. He would remember this, too. "I don't think they would capture us."

"What makes you say that, Maximum?" he asked, rubbing his sore eyes.

Fang looked confused, as did everyone else.

"At the end, when it was just me and Fang left inside, the creepers went away."

"Huh?" was the collective question.

"Yeah. Everyone else had gotten out—well, except for, you know—and it was just the two of us fighting them. Then they looked at us, looked at each other, and slunk away."

Jeb absorbed this new information. "Did they? They must've already gotten what they'd wanted, then. Just a little piece of your flocks, not the bigger pieces."

I nodded. That was one way to put it.

"And then, if they just wanted those pieces, Nudge and Pep should be safe, right?" Dylan asked, the first time he'd spoken all afternoon. I realized then that most of us had been silent, pretty much letting Artemis get his emotions out as he vented.

Jeb caught on and nodded. "Yes. They should be fine."

Maybe it was a lie. But the goal was accomplished. Artemis breathed a great sigh of relief and sunk into the sofa, less tense than he had been in days.

I can't say the same was true of the rest of us.

All I was really sure of was that, once I got a hold of whoever the hell had taken them prisoner, this fiend who had made me look like a fool, I would kick his ass into the next year.

Fang squeezed my hand, like he knew the thoughts that were running through my mind. Don't worry, the gesture said. You'll get that chance.

And when I got the chance, I would take it.

* * *

AN: The next chapter is entitled "The Break Up." Oh, what fun...(x

REVIEWS are awesome, and amazing, and appreciated. REVIEW! (More than six this time would be lovely, so I shall repeat myself.)

**REVIEWS are awesome, and amazing, and appreciated. REVIEW!**


	8. The Break Up

AN: Oh, yes, I didn't lie about the title of this chapter. I'm tempted to write a super long AN, so as to distract you from reading it for a moment, but I won't be that mean. XP

...Or will I? Bwahahaha...

OHMYGURSHES, _ANGEL_ COMES OUT IN THREE DAYS! I preordered it, and I can't wait! :D

Ahem. Sorry about that. I just had to get it out.(x

ENJOY!

* * *

The Battle's Just Begun  
Sequel to The Battle of the Exes

Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.

**Chapter Eight: The Break Up**

My mom hugged me tight. "We'll be back before you know it, okay? Don't let the kids do anything too stupid, keep an eye on your sister, make sure Angel doesn't get into my office, make sure Gazzy stays out of the power tools, and make sure Iggy doesn't hurt himself," she instructed quickly, delivering the entire message to me under her breath.

Fang worried about keeping Lux away from the cookie jar. I got to make sure that Gazzy stayed away from the power tools, lest he blow anything up.

Lovely.

I nodded against her shoulder. "Sure thing. Don't worry, we'll all still be in one piece when you get back."

"Of course you will. I trust you, Max."

I admit, I was touched. Yeah, it's my mom and all, but to hear her say that she_ t__rusts_ me, well, that was big.

Still, I wasn't about to turn this into a mush fest. So I just nodded and let myself smile a bit.

Okay, maybe more than a bit.

Jeb clapped a hand onto my shoulder. "Things will all work out, Maximum," he assured, though I wasn't sure if he was trying to assure me, or himself.

I nodded, before I realized that I must have looked like a dashboard bobble-head.

He leaned down and whispered, "And make sure that everyone's okay. It won't be easy."

"Okay. I can do that."

Maya surprised me. She was suddenly standing in front of me, grinning. Then she was embracing me. I almost didn't know how to react.

"I'm sorry things have gone like this so far, Max. But I know it'll all unfold pleasantly, and everything will go according to plan."

The thing is, while Maya was Jeb's girlfriend, I didn't know her very well, because she wasn't very wordy. Into science, check. Hanging with the good guys, check. Dating my father, check. And that was the extent of the list of things that I knew about Maya Dogum.

I hugged her back awkwardly. "Um, thanks," was the genius response I cooked up.

The three of them said good-bye to everyone else, before grabbing their bags and departing. The door shut with a very final _click_.

And we had the house to ourselves.

You do the math:

Ten hormonal teenagers.

Two big, empty houses.

No adults.

No rules.

A need to find something interesting and worthwhile.

Add it all up, and you have one hell of a bash.

But that's not what happened.

Gazzy scurried up the stairs, back to his hole, presumably to continue the work he and Pepin had left unfinished. Angel and Lux ran towards the backyard, and I swear I heard them say the words "tree house." Artemis trailed after Izumi and Dylan over into the family room, probably to watch a movie. Iggy's blind eyes searched the entry hall, until they landed on Ella. She took one look at him and dashed up the stairs; I heard her door slam shut.

Iggy sighed and drifted after the Gasman.

Fang glanced at me. "I guess it's just us two."

"Yeah, I guess."

He took three quick steps over to my side, putting his arm around my waist. "What ever shall we do?"

I smiled mischievously, knowing he'd catch on.

He smirked, lifting an eyebrow. "Shouldn't you worry about other things, Max?"

I punched him lightly, making sure to not hurt his still-healing arm. "Shut up. You know you were thinking it, too."

Fang chuckled. "What makes you say that?"

I tugged on the arm he had placed around me.

Fang stepped in front of me, the ceiling fixture making a halo of light behind his head. "Well, maybe I just felt like putting my arm around my girlfriend. It's not against the law, you know." He kissed my forehead.

"It might be, in some obscure foreign country that we've never heard of. You never know."

"Mm, but it isn't in this country."

"No, it isn't."

Fang closed his hypnotic eyes, bumping his nose into mine, very much on purpose. He kissed me gently, once, twice, thrice. Then deeper. I reached behind me and found the light switch. I pushed it down.

I stared out into the darkness as Fang's lips trailed down my neck, his fingers pushing down my shirt a bit so he could get my shoulder.

"See? I knew you were thinking it," I accused.

"Of course I was."

"You admit it?"

"Why shouldn't I? You already know practically everything about me, Max. Sometimes, I even think you know me better than I know myself. There's no harm in letting you know what's on my mind."

"If you say so."

Fang and I stayed there in the entry hall for a few minutes, before deciding on somewhere a bit more…private.

That's how we ended up in what I wanted to think of as Iggy and Ella's closet.

The moment the door was closed behind us, I kissed Fang. He held me tightly, his curious hands roaming. I didn't stop him. The kisses became desperate, passionate. I listened as Fang's breath grew heavier, labored. I could feel my heart beating rapidly under Fang's touch, but it didn't stop me. I wanted more, more of Fang, more of this.

At some point, our legs gave out and we collapsed to the floor, but we didn't stop. My fingers were weaving intricate knots through Fang's black hair. His hands seemed to encompass my entire torso. My legs were wrapped around his, and he was wonderfully on top of me, and I was suddenly scared.

Yes, scared. Okay, terrified.

But the fear didn't have long to dwell in my system. Everything was flushed out the instant we heard the scream.

Now, before you worry, this wasn't a scream of pain, or terror, or fright. This was a scream of pure frustration.

After Ella finished shrieking, Iggy shouted, "What the hell do you want from me?"

"I just want you! That's all I freaking want! But you seem hell-bent on otherwise!"

I heard Iggy stutter, "Wh- What?"

I could tell Fang was listening, too. He rolled off of me smoothly, trying to slow his breathing.

"You! You're gonna get yourself killed, and you know it! Hell, you seem to _like_ the idea!"

"I am not suicidal!"

"I'm not saying that you are. I'm just saying that you have a death wish, and, one of these days, it's gonna come true!"

"I've been doing this my whole life! Don't lecture me on death, when you don't know anything about it!"

"That could be you! Don't you get it! Pepin and Nudge are _gone_, and it could be you instead!"

"It's not like it would make a difference, because you'd ostracize me either way!"

"Only because you're so damn stubborn! If you actually looked out for yourself once in a while, maybe I wouldn't!" I swear I heard Ella choke up. More tears. Great.

"Ella—!"

There were footsteps pounding down the stairs, and for a stupid moment, I was concerned about Fang and I being found in this…compromising position.

But Ella stopped at the bottom of the staircase.

"Is it so hard for you to understand that I actually _care_ about what might happen to you? Is it, really?"

"I get that! But why the hell can you _not_ understand that I know how to take care of myself? Just because I'm blind doesn't mean that I need to be babied."

"Ha! I figured that out from the moment I met you! _But you've stopped caring_!"

"Who are you to tell me that? You don't know me! You're _not_ me!"

"Oh, so now I don't know you? After almost a freaking year, you seriously have the nerve to say that? _That I don't know you?_"

Iggy's voice was quieter, no longer shouting. "Yes. Yes, I do. And it's the truth."

The dam broke. Ella started to cry.

I expected Iggy to stop fighting and hurting, and to start mending and comforting.

But he didn't.

"You don't understand me, Ella. You never could. I'm going to be fine, and I know it. I'm just waiting for you to realize that. But I know now that it's impossible."

Ella sniffled, but didn't argue.

"I know I thought this could work, but it can't."

I froze at his words, and I could suddenly feel the stabbing pain that I knew Ella was feeling at that moment.

This couldn't be happening. No.

I moved to stand, to get out of this closet and resolve everything before anyone's heart could break further. But Fang stopped me, his hand clutching my wrist. I turned to him and watched his eyes sweep my unkempt state. We were both a complete mess, wrinkled and rustled, uneven and crooked. I also knew that he wanted me to let the two of them deal with this on their own.

I sighed and lay back down next to him.

"What… What are you saying, Iggy?" Ella's voice trembled.

"This isn't working. I keep trying, and I know you do, too. But it's not making a difference. We're just always pissed off at each other."

"Iggy…"

"I'm sorry. But I just can't. Not anymore."

I'm sure Ella tried to be brave, but she couldn't. A sob escaped her lips.

Then, Iggy solidified his decision: "It's over. I'm sorry."

I heard half a dozen quick footsteps, and then the front door swung open.

Iggy was gone.

In his wake, he left behind my sister. I heard her fall onto the bottom step of the staircase, and then the waterworks really started up.

Iggy and Ella had been arguing loud enough that I'm sure the rest of the flocks heard. Maybe we'd all seen it coming, anyway. And there wasn't anything we could've done to stop it.

Fang kissed my temple before standing up. I watched from the floor as he smoothed his rumpled T-shirt, ran his fingers through his hair, trying to make it not so obvious that he'd just been making out with me. Then he walked out of the closet and the open front door, after Iggy.

{[(/*\)]}

Fang meandered down the block, knowing where he would find Iggy. There was a park not far from the houses the flocks were staying in, and Fang had found Iggy there more than once. When the playground came into sight, complete with a plastic slide and a row of swings, Fang could see it was deserted, except for one seventeen-year-old bird kid, with shaggy orange hair. Iggy's head was in his hands.

Fang peeled his shoes off before reaching the sand, followed by his socks, not caring for finding the pesky substance in every nook and cranny of his footwear.

Iggy was near the slide, and Fang climbed up there, sitting next to him.

"Hey."

Iggy did not respond.

Fang let his legs swing, his feet dangling above the sand. He wouldn't push Iggy to speak; Iggy would come around on his own.

"I take it you heard," Iggy said softly.

Fang nodded. "Yeah. The whole thing, pretty much."

"Where were you? I didn't realize you were there…"

Fang knew that if he told Iggy where he'd been, Max would have his head. "I just heard Ella scream, and then you guys coming down the stairs, and everything else after that."

"It's just that, I'd thought she'd come to apologize. But no, she'd come to ask me to not go back, to _not_ try to save Nudge and Pepin. She didn't want me to get captured, too."

Iggy stared blankly ahead, as though he were hesitating.

"I don't know, Fang, but I just can't do that to them. They're my family, ya know? Your flock, too. And Ella… I don't know. But I wasn't about to just hand her everything, my entire life. She's too worried. And I just couldn't take it…"

Fang placed a comforting hand on his friend's back, right between his wings. Iggy just stared up at the sky.

"Maybe it's for the better. I feel so much freer, like this gargantuan weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Maybe it'll be okay, like it was with you and Max."

Fang bit back a chuckle. "You don't wanna wish for that. Remember? It took two years and then some, and the 'then some' was excruciating."

"But it was for the better, and it all worked out in the end, didn't it?"

"I guess so."

"I mean, I do kinda miss her already, but I'll deal with it, and so will she."

Fang nodded. "Yeah."

"And I'll get over it, and so will she."

"Uh-huh."

"Oh my God, what the hell have I done?" Iggy gripped his fiery hair, letting it tangle in his long fingers. "Fang, what the hell have I gotten myself into?"

Fang smirked and clapped Iggy's shoulder. "This, my friend, is called post-break-up moodiness."

"How did you deal with this for two freaking years?"

"I just did. It's not easy, but you don't really have another choice. You just have to deal."

"And what if I don't? What it I can't?"

"You will. Break ups are just hard at first, for everyone. But it gets better."

"If you say so. But you _did_ have one advantage."

Fang didn't understand. "What do you mean?"

"You didn't have to live with the chick you dumped."

* * *

AN: Yeah. So, now Iggy and Ella have officially broken up. *tear* But you got FAX!(:

OHMYGOSH! THE CURSE IS BROKEN!

Okay, see, ever since the beginning of the story, and up until chapter six, the review number decreased by two every chapter. So it started out as 16, then 14, 12...and it got as low as 6. BUT LAST CHAPTER, I GOT TEN REVIEWS! WHOO!

THANK YOU GUYS SOOOO MUCH!

Now, REVIEWS are like CLUES. They lead up to something bigger. REVIEW!


	9. The Screw Up

AN: SO SORRY that I didn't update yesterday! I was unexpectedly out of the house for most of the day, and I wasn't able to post. Again, I apologize.

THANK YOU for reviewing.(:

Enjoy the chapter, though I'm warning you now that there is some blood...

* * *

The Battle's Just Begun  
Sequel to The Battle of the Exes

Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.

**Chapter Nine: The Screw Up**

The morning after Iggy and Ella broke up, I woke up to the sound of a knock on the front door. Out of laziness, I didn't get up at first. But when the knocking didn't stop, I groaned and dragged myself out of bed and down the stairs.

Izumi and Lux were on the other side of the door, and they looked desperate.

I was instantly alert, especially when I noticed that Fang wasn't with them. "What's going on?" I demanded, letting them inside the house.

Izumi looked me straight in the eye, something she doesn't do very often. "It's Artemis. He's gone."

My first reaction was immense relief, relief that Fang was okay. But then I realized that relief was not the proper emotion.

Artemis was gone.

"What do you mean, he's gone?" I asked.

Lux reached into her pocket and fished out a folded sheet of paper, which she handed to me. I opened it up, and quickly scanned the words. Artemis had gone to look for Nudge and Pepin.

"When did you find this?"

"Just this morning," Izzy replied. "Lux found it on the kitchen table, and Fang went out to go look for him. But we need help."

I nodded, and then I shot up the stairs, yelling at the top of my lungs. "IGGY! DYLAN! GAZZY! ANGEL! GET UP!"

Doors started to open slowly. Iggy peered out of his room, his blind eyes narrowed in annoyance. "What could possibly be so important at this ungodly hour on a Saturday?" Dylan appeared next to him, yawning.

"Wake up, get dressed, and get your feathery butts downstairs," I ordered. I moved on to Gazzy and Angel's room, but I heard rustling behind the now-closed door and knew they were already awake. I left Ella alone, deciding to just leave her a note on our way out.

I barged into my own bedroom. "Nudge!" I started. And then I remembered: no Nudge. It seemed to hit me a lot harder at that moment than it had before. _Nudge was gone_. That was why Artemis was gone.

I kicked my door shut behind me, and started tearing through the closet. I stripped down and pulled on some clean clothes, and then I tied my knotted hair in a ponytail. I ended up being the first one downstairs, ready to go.

Dylan trudged down the staircase and mumbled, "Food."

I shook my head. "No time for that."

It was another two minutes before everyone else was there. We all stood by the front door, ready to go.

"What's the deal, Max?" Iggy asked begrudgingly.

I turned to Izumi. "You wanna take this?"

She shook her head. "Not my flock."

"Okay, guys. We seem to have a bit of a problem." Angel looked at me knowingly, and I knew that she already knew all the details of this little mission.

I continued. "Artemis has gone. Presumably, he took off in the direction of the building where we were…outnumbered. He's planning to retrieve Nudge and Pepin."

"Oh, great," Dylan supplied unnecessarily.

"Shut up. He's in a real jam here. It's just Artemis, and he didn't see what we saw. It looked like this enemy we're facing has endless troops. He could get himself captured, too, or hurt, or…"

I gulped down the lump in my throat. After eighteen years of survival, you'd think I would be used to the idea by now. But I still couldn't bring myself to utter the word, no matter how much truth it held. I couldn't say it to my flock, about a member of another flock, because the word held truth not only for Artemis, but for Pepin and Nudge, as well.

I couldn't let my flock condemn them to that awful fate.

So I never finished the sentence.

"Fang's already gone out looking for him, but he needs more help. So I've volunteered us." I grinned at my flock.

They didn't complain. They knew how serious this was, and they all knew the word that I didn't dare say, because it was something we all feared, unconsciously.

"Pair up!" I ordered. "Whoever's left without a partner will get to be Fang's partner, got it?"

Everyone nodded solemnly, and Izumi grabbed Lux's hand. Angel went with Iggy, Gazzy with Dylan. This is good, I thought to myself. I didn't really want to leave the younger kids, or those who I considered young kids, alone, or without an older guardian.

And that left me with Fang. The thought made me want to smile.

"Let's move it!" I shouted. We all charged through the front door and out of the house, and, with barely a pause, into the air. Three pairs of wings floated off in different directions. While it was most likely that Artemis had gone northeast, back to the location of our encounter, we couldn't afford to take any chances.

"…_it's bad enough to lose one of you, but two would be a tragedy."_

We were looking at the prospect of losing three people here. On Jeb's scale, that probably equaled apocalyptic.

I was two and a half blocks away from the house when I remembered Ella, alone and asleep in her bed. I swooped around and returned, not wanting her to think that we'd _all_ gone missing. That, and my mom and co. were due back soon. Nine missing kids out of ten would be one hell of a welcome home.

I jogged into the house and found the notepad and pen that my mom used for phone messages and tore off the top sheet. In big, sloppy writing, I wrote, "GONE OUT, BE BACK SOON. –M" That would suffice. I would just have to explain the entire situation to Ella later on.

When I was closing the front door behind me, I could make out a lone bird in the sky above, circling around. It was two seconds before I realized that it wasn't a bird, but my boyfriend.

Fang descended slowly, his circles growing smaller and smaller. Five feet above the ground, he tucked in his great, midnight wings, and dropped down in front of me.

"Any luck?" I asked him.

"Nothing. He could have anywhere between a lead of hours, to minutes. He might've left this morning, or late last night. By now, he could be on the other side of the freaking country, or still in Arizona. Artemis is a smart enough kid to know that we would've gone after him."

"Yeah, you're right. But we can't give up looking," I urged. I grabbed Fang's hand in mine, and ran, stringing Fang along behind me. We took off at the same time, like we were perfectly synchronized. Our wings flapped at intervals that alternated, so that they never touched.

"Where have you looked?" I shouted to Fang, making sure he could hear me over the wind that was rushing by us as we flew.

Fang jerked his head, gesturing behind us. "Back there. That's it."

I nodded. "So that gives us…most of the country."

"Yep."

"Then we'd best get started."

{[(/*\)]}

Nobody found Artemis that day. When we all returned to my mom's house, as the sun was setting, I noticed a car parked outside.

The grown-ups were back.

Angel opened the front door slowly, letting everyone else in. I wasn't used to seeing the flocks so diminished. There were usually eleven of us; now, there were eight.

My mom walked out of the kitchen when she heard us come in. "Max? Where have you guys been?"

I sighed. "I'll let Fang explain. Are Jeb and Maya here?"

She nodded. "In the kitchen."

"Let's go. We'd better get this over with," Fang muttered.

We trailed into the kitchen, a little line of mutants. Sure enough, Jeb and Maya were sitting at the table, and I could see Ella in the family room, reading. We all gathered around, and Fang sat down. This was the business of his flock.

Fang explained everything, from finding Artemis's note, to searching for him all day. Jeb's face fell with each word, and Maya was resting her head in her hands. My mom was stirring the mug of coffee that she had in front of her, wordless.

"We should've known that he would try something like that. We should've known," Jeb mumbled under his breath.

"What do we do now?" Maya asked.

Jeb looked around at all of us, sorrow swimming in his eyes. "We wait."

{[(/*\)]}

Fang waited for two days, and then some. He was frustrated, though he tried not to show it. Max could tell, and probably Angel and Lux knew, but that was it. Fang hadn't been leading his flock as near as long as Max, and it had taken him about two years to acquire its five members. Two freaking years. And in less than a week, he had lost almost half his flock.

Fang knew that Max was pretty upset, too, but Nudge was just one small part of her flock. Important, yes, but small. But Fang needed Pep and Artemis. They were a big part of the flock. If his flock was attacked, Fang was certain that they wouldn't make it out. Yes, Lux and Izzy were skilled, and so was he, but the three of them weren't enough.

On the morning that Artemis came back, Fang had gone downstairs, to the kitchen for a glass of milk. He couldn't sleep, and he had spent most of the night with Max. But she was sound asleep in his bed, and he had barely been able to shut his eyes.

So he made the trek down the stairs of what he thought of as Jeb's house, slowly, dragging his feet along the carpet. He walked into the empty kitchen, and tugged open the fridge, pulling out the milk jug. He grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it three-quarters of the way. Fang wasn't in the mood for any half-full, half-empty crap. Then he dug up the coveted cookie jar, which was in hiding because of Lux. He just wanted one cookie; that was all.

Cookie met milk, and cookie almost met Fang's mouth, but he was stopped by a thud, the sound of a body falling. Fang almost ignored it, attempting again to enjoy the midnight treat (or rather, 3 AM treat), but he heard another noise, a sort of rustle.

Like wings.

Fang sighed, and let the cookie rest on the rim of the glass of milk. He would get back to it, he told himself.

The noises were coming from just outside the front door. The porch light had turned on, Fang noticed. Part of him was cautious, wondering if this was maybe a trap of some sort. But with two of his flock missing, Fang hoped more than he feared.

He opened the door, just a crack. There was another rustle, feather against feather. It was a sound Fang knew well.

He opened the door farther, and then he saw Artemis, though he was barely recognizable. His left wing was twitching repeatedly, the source of the rustling, and part of it was bent at an odd angle, an angle Fang imagined was quite painful. Blood was caked on his right wing, so much of it the Fang couldn't see the wound. Artemis's soft caramel skin was shining in the light from the porch lamp, the light reflecting off of the sweat and blood that was covering Artemis like a wetsuit, clinging to his skin. Fang could hear his quick, staccato breathing, shallow and labored.

With seemingly great effort, Artemis lifted his face. "Help…" he croaked.

Fang squatted down, at first searching for somewhere he could grab onto Artemis that _wouldn't_ cause pain, but he soon decided the search was futile. So he just gripped Artemis's left arm, trying to gently pull his comrade to his feet. Artemis staggered uneasily, and Fang noticed that his pants were torn from his mid-thigh to his ankle. In that leg, the right one, there was a deep, bloody gash. Artemis sucked in his breath to fight against the pain.

"God, what happened?" Fang asked, not really expecting an answer. He didn't get one.

Fang pulled Artemis into the kitchen, flipping on the light switch. The glass of milk and cookie no longer looked so welcoming, sitting all alone on the table. Fang put Artemis into one of the chairs, and then he shouted at the top of his lungs, "MAX!" He knew she would detect the urgency in his voice, no matter how asleep she was. She would be downstairs soon.

In the meantime, Fang got his first good look at Artemis's condition, and though he was no doctor, Fang knew it wasn't good. In addition to the injuries Fang had already found, he saw that Artemis's right wrist was sprained. There was a deep cut on his eyebrow, one that ended just before it hit his eye socket. Still, Artemis was trying to keep the eye shut. His nose was most definitely broken, the kind of break that would show for the rest of his life, no matter how many years passed. Artemis was shuddering uncontrollably, and Fang was sure that he was going into shock, if he wasn't in shock already.

At last, he could hear Max trudging down the stairs. "What's going on?" she asked, her voice thick with sleep. She was coming toward the kitchen, toward the light. She froze in the kitchen doorway, seeing Artemis sprawled out awkwardly on the chair. She cursed under her breath.

Fang tried to keep up the appearance of calm. "Go wake up everybody else, then go get your mom," he ordered. It surprised him how easily he could boss Max around, but he supposed he was just slipping into his leader persona.

Max didn't seem to mind. She nodded vigorously and was gone in an instant.

Fang never did get to finish his milk and cookie.

* * *

AN: ...so I stole his milk and cookie.(x

IMPORTANT! DO NOT tell me about _ANGEL_! I have yet to finish reading it, so I don't know how it ends or anything just yet. I will hopefully be done some time today, BUT DON'T TELL ME ABOUT IT! Thank you.(:

Wow, so I just realized that I forgot to tell you guys: I submitted my novel (the one I started during NaNoWriMo) to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. The grandprize is a publishing contract with Penguin. So, while I'm not convinced I'll do very good, I am hoping to get through round one, which ends next Thursday. I'll be sure to keep you guys posted on what happens with that, but, in the meantime, do please wish me luck. I need it.

REVIEWS are like CLARITY. And they're a heck of a lot better than confusion. REVIEW!


	10. Reservations

AN: Let's pretend _ANGEL_ never happened. Besides, the cliffhanger ticked me off.

Ahem. Well, yeah, Chapter Fourteen is currently in the works, and I know the time to post it will come sooner than I'd like. Sooo...*types faster*

Sadly, I did not make it to the second round of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest. I searched the list for quite a while, hunting for my name, but, alas, it was not there. But I'll try again next year, with a year's worth of editing (rather than a month's worth of procrastinating) and a pitch that was not composed the hour before submission.

THANK YOU FOR REVIEWING! We broke a hundred, which makes me deliriously happy.(:

ENJOY!

* * *

The Battle's Just Begun  
Sequel to The Battle of the Exes

Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.

**Chapter Ten: Reservations**

It was a few days before Artemis felt up to talking. We didn't push him; we all just waited patiently. We were getting used to waiting.

I've seen blood before, but seeing Artemis like that, so beat up, it was like I'd forgotten how to react. He was in bad condition, and I couldn't help but wonder how the hell he had managed to get back on a bloody leg and a pair of injured wings. I was also wondering what had happened to him, because he looked like he'd fallen into a bird kid shredder and narrowly escaped.

I had rushed up the stairs, yelling for everyone to get up. I didn't think about any implications; I just did what Fang told me to. Once Jeb, Maya, Lux, and Izumi were wide awake, I'd launched myself out a window and into the night. I'd flown as fast as I could to my mom's house, and I practically dragged her out of bed. But when I'd told her that Artemis was back and needed help, she almost moved faster than I did.

Though my mom had brought her vet bag with her, it wasn't enough. We ended up taking Artemis down to my mom's clinic, leaving Maya, Lux, and Izzy behind. At the clinic, my mom cleaned Artemis up, stitched him up, and bandaged him up. In addition to multiple flesh wounds and countless bruises, Artemis had sustained a sprained wrist, a torn muscle in his right wing, three broken bones in his left wing, and a fractured fibula in his right leg. He had lost a lot of blood, too, and Fang and I ended up giving him some of our own. The last time I'd had blood taken from me was when Fang was in the hospital.

After Artemis had rested up enough, I took my flock over to Jeb's house. We were all eager to find out what had happened. Both flocks, plus our so-called "guardians," gathered in the TV room, where there was a plethora of comfortable couches, enough room for all of us. Artemis, of course, got one whole sofa to himself.

"I guess you guys wanna know what happened," Artemis said softly. His eyes wouldn't meet anyone's.

Fang nodded. "Yes."

Artemis gulped, letting his head fall back lazily, so he could stare up at the ceiling. "I wasn't even in the city yet. Probably still a few miles away. I don't know how they found me, or if they knew I was coming, or what. But they shot at me. One bullet was all it took, and I lost control. I fell on my other wing. By then, they were all over. It was such a brief fight. And then they left me. I think they wanted me to die, but I didn't. I just knew that I had to get back here."

"How did you do that?" Izzy asked. "I mean, how could you have possibly made it back?"

"I flew most of it, but I had to stop a lot. I tried to ignore the pain in my wings, 'cause I didn't want to think that they were too injured to fly me back. I had to walk part of the way, when my wings wouldn't move, but that never lasted long. By the time I dropped on the doorstep, I could hardly move anything at all."

Angel, who had been strangely silent lately, spoke now. "What attacked you, Artemis?"

Artemis didn't respond for a while, but I could see the tremor in his muscles. "I don't know…"

"Describe them," Angel persisted.

"They seemed to change right before my eyes, from people to…something. I don't know what it was. But they had teeth, and claws, and… They were vicious. They spoke to each other, too. Snarled. I couldn't understand what they were saying."

Artemis's description, though vague, chilled me to the bone. Most of my flock was displaying this disturbance, everyone except for Dylan, but Fang knew what Artemis was describing, too. The picture Artemis's words painted in my mind was one that was too familiar, one that I had learned to dread early on in my life.

Gazzy gave these creatures a name, something the rest of us didn't have enough courage to do. "Erasers."

Dylan, Izumi, Lux, and Artemis were puzzled. "What?"

Jeb cleared his throat. "Erasers. One of the early genetic hybridization attempts of Itex. They were a mix of human DNA and lupine DNA."

"Wolves," Dylan supplied, his face ashen.

"Yes. Erasers are part human, part wolf," Jeb confirmed.

"But didn't they all…disappear?" Iggy asked.

"Yes. The School eliminated all of its Erasers, replacing them with different versions, updates and modernizations. Those were all supposed to have gone extinct as well. They expired."

"So what does this mean?" Lux asked. "If these dead things are coming back, then what?"

"We have a clue," I said, surprising myself.

"What makes you say that, Max?" Maya questioned.

My mom seemed to understand. "If these Erasers are back, and they attacked Artemis, then we know that this person we're chasing was expecting him. Presumably, whoever unleashed the Erasers is also Nudge and Pepin's captor. So he knew Artemis was coming, and he has a good number of Erasers. And because Erasers all went extinct, we must assume that our elusive enemy was once connected to the School, and definitely has connections. And these Erasers must have been made from scratch, taking years, which means that he has an understanding of genetics. A geneticist, maybe, but most definitely a scientist."

"Or he might just have scientists at his disposal," Jeb commented.

"Correct. But I think it's more likely that he _is_ a scientist."

"And if he expected Artemis, he must know that he's pulling some strings. He knows what he's doing. He knows _us_," Fang added.

"Yes. Yes, he does," Jeb decided.

"Then he can't be far," Dylan said. "He's close."

"Yeah," Fang whispered, "Too close."

Jeb eyed him strangely. "Don't suggest that there's a leak, Fang. No one that we're working with even knows where you are, or your relationships with each other. It's more likely that the captor has been picking through Nudge and Pepin's brains—not literally, of course. So he knew that someone would be coming after them."

Fang sighed, but nodded in hesitant agreement. I could tell he wanted to say more. He was sure of a leak. The night Artemis returned, we'd been talking about it, and he had been noticing things that I hadn't. When he pointed these out to me, he almost convinced me. A leak was very possible. It was just a matter of convincing Jeb that it was possible.

{[(/*\)]}

With Artemis still recovering, there wasn't much that we could do. Jeb and his people were still hunting for clues, which meant that the rest of us just had to sit tight.

In the down-time, I tried more than once to talk to Ella, but she was never around. Always out of the house, or locked in her room. I had a feeling that she was avoiding, not only Iggy, but all of us.

So, when talking to my sister failed, I would hang out with Fang, though he was thoroughly distracted. He would badger Artemis for any slip of information concerning our target, no matter how many times Artemis insisted that he didn't know anything more than we did. Fang was trying to prove his theory, I knew. And he wasn't really getting anywhere.

I got out of bed, unable to sleep. The bedroom felt eerily empty without Nudge's slow and steady breathing nearby. I couldn't stand it; I hadn't been able to for quite some time. I opened the window, feeling a chilly breeze enter. The seasons were changing, I realized. I grabbed a sweater and wrapped it around me, little protection against the cold. I had half a mind to pull on some socks, but I was too eager to get out. So I just hopped up onto the ledge and jumped out the window.

I had forgotten about the sweater. It was a new one, and I hadn't yet cut slits into the back, so that I could easily release my wings.

The result: I couldn't free my wings all the way. They struggled underneath the thin cloth, flapping uselessly. My eyes grew wide as I started to panic. I had just jumped out of the second-story window of my mom's house, something that was almost automatic for me. But the fall could kill, if the person landed right.

My arms and legs flailed in the air, as though they were wings, too, and would hold me aloft. If only, if only…

I was still falling, quite silently, I might add, when I heard a _whoosh_. A pair of strong arms caught me around my torso, jerking me violently upward and stealing my breath for an instant. The ground was just a couple feet away.

Fang landed slowly, gently, not making a sound as his feet planted themselves firmly on the earth.

"What the hell, Max?" he said, sighing in frustration.

I tugged on my sweater. "I forgot that there're no holes in this." My heart slowed down, the thrill of falling past me now.

Fang looked up into the night sky, a pleading look on his face. "Max…"

"Sorry," I told him sheepishly.

"Where were you going anyway?"

"I was going to your house."

Fang smiled humorlessly. "Then I guess it's lucky that I was on my way here already."

I nodded.

"So then, where do you wanna go?"

I looked Fang up and down. He was wearing a pair of pajama bottoms I'd bought for him some time ago, for his birthday, and a ratty old T-shirt. He usually didn't wear a shirt to bed.

"You pick. I was just lonely."

"Missing Nudge?" he asked.

"Yeah. It's so weird not sharing room with her, since she's…you know."

Fang glanced up at my open window. "Well, seeing as we're already here, we might as well stay, don't you think?"

"Alright."

Fang put his arm around me, pulling me into him, kissing my hair. "Do you wanna use the front door? Or try flying again?" I could hear the smirk in his voice and I knew that he was teasing me.

I shoved at him. "Oh, shut up. I can fly, and you know it."

"Maybe when you're awake, but half asleep? I don't think so."

"Well I'd like to see you fly better," I challenged.

"I do believe you just did. Remember? I caught you midair?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Whatever." I wanted to know why I seemed to be losing all our arguments and debates these days.

Fang opened the front door for me, like the gentleman he could be on occasion. I rammed my shoulder into his chest, my pitiful form of revenge.

Fang followed me up the stairs, and I was seriously considering locking him out of my room, but I knew he would find a way in, anyway. So I didn't bother.

I peeled off the sweater and closed the window. I would seriously need to remember to cut the slits into that sweater before I tried to wear it ever again.

I sat down on my bed, crisscross-apple-sauce. Fang strolled in, closing the door behind him, and sat down by me.

"Any luck?" I asked him.

He knew what I was talking about. "No. All Artemis really remembers is the Erasers, and he didn't even know that they were called that until we told him."

I sighed. "Well, who do you think the leak is?"

He shrugged. "It could be anyone, really. Someone Jeb's working with, Jeb himself, the neighbors…"

I highly doubted the possibility of the last option. The nearest neighbors consisted of one wrinkled old couple, one very young couple with little twin boys, a man who lived alone, and one family of a mom and her three teenagers. None of them seemed the type to be involved in any sort of science, scandalous or not.

"What if it's someone in our flocks?" I asked, voicing the notion the very instant it popped into my head. It was outrageous, I knew.

"No way," Fang assured me. "If Lux can't even steal a cookie without everyone in the house knowing about it, I doubt that anyone would be able to pull off something of this magnitude."

"Well, Gazzy and Pepin _were_ being awful secretive, until—"

"Until Pepin was captured. If the pair of them was the leak, why kidnap Pepin?"

"To throw us off?"

"Nah. This guy, whoever he is, seems too…direct for that. It's like he knows what our next move is gonna be, and he's playing us accordingly."

"And who knows us better than our own flocks?" I questioned.

Fang locked onto my eyes, seemingly searching them to see if I meant what I was proposing, "That's a good question, Max. Who knows you better than I do? And who knows me better than you?"

I nodded, knowing he could see that I had a point. "Exactly."

Fang pulled the blankets up, around us, and got comfortable. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me against his chest. He kissed my neck. "I trust you won't kill me in my sleep, Maximum."

He was asleep soon enough. But my mind was racing. The sudden revelation that I'd had downright shocked me. Could our flocks be the leak? Could someone among us be collaborating with the enemy? But why?

It fit so perfectly. Too perfectly.

For once, I didn't want to be right.

{[(/*\)]}

The letter came in the mail the next day, and it told of a disturbing plan.

Our enemy, whoever the hell he was, told it all to us. We wanted to get as many clues as we could from the envelope and the letter tucked inside, but we had no such luck. The letter was typed on nondescript printer paper, in the default Times New Roman font. As for the postage, there were several stamps, postmarked with dates as far back as a month prior, from cities all around the world. From what we could tell, the most recent postmark had come from Auckland. And yes, I do mean the Auckland in New Zealand.

Jeb wanted to take the envelope down to his lab (ooh, scary thought…) to do some DNA testing. There was nothing to be taken from that. No stray hairs, no finger prints, no saliva, nada.

We, the flocks, mostly concerned ourselves with the contents of the envelope. Just that single sheet of paper, with very few words. Twenty-six total:

"You will not succeed. You will fall to me, just like your comrades. You will no longer protect. And you will deliver the world to me."

Cue mysterious music right about…now.

Are you creeped out yet?

* * *

AN: Ooooooh...

Inspiration for the second to last line came from **Cue Mysterious Music Rite Now**'s awesome penname. (Sorry, FF wouldn't let me write it out the right way. Grr.)

I have a question:

Okay, so, what advice would you give someone (Person A) who liked another someone (Person B) she probably shouldn't? And it's not unrequited; Person B likes Person A, too. BUT Person B is going out with Person A's friend, and is also Person A's ex. So now Person A is thoroughly confused. What do YOU think she should do?

REVIEWS are awesome. REVIEW!


	11. The Break In

AN: Thanks so much, guys. Person A appreciates all your help and suggestions.(:

WHOOT! We are now on the second half of this story. Thank you for all your reviews that have gotten the story this far.(:

On the chapter titles...I just love playing around with the words. A lot of them will be similar to each other, contradict each other, blah, blah, blah... Like not too long ago, we had "The Break Down" and "The Break Up." We had "Work it Out," and I will soon be writing "Fight it Out"... You see where I'm going with this? Well, anyway, this one is called "The Break In." Bwahaha...

Sorry that this chapter is so much shorter than some. Oops. But I hope you enjoy it anyway!

* * *

The Battle's Just Begun  
Sequel to The Battle of the Exes

Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.

**Chapter Eleven: The Break In**

Fang had discovered that sleep was difficult to find. Unless Max was at his side, in peaceful slumber, horrifying visions awaited him when he shut his eyes. His flock, bloodied and battered. Pepin and Nudge, tortured. Artemis being attacked by the Erasers again. But the most terrible, by far, was of Max. Her beautiful hair, her firm but loving eyes, her gorgeous smile…all twisted and maimed. Her features marred, almost beyond recognition.

And then there was another vision, a newer one, sparked by Max's words: "What if it's someone in our flocks?"

Her words had planted a seed in Fang's mind, one that grew into a weed that was choking Fang's brain, clinging, drifting into his every thought and action. He found himself watching Izumi and Lux and Artemis more closely. He guarded his thoughts more than he ever had before when he was around Angel and Lux. He hardly spoke to Iggy, Gazzy, and Dylan.

And he wouldn't tell Max what was on his mind.

Max's words made too much sense to him. Indeed, who _did_ know them better than their own flocks? How was Fang supposed to trust them, when they could be plotting his murder?

He couldn't. He just couldn't.

And then that letter…that blasted letter. What did it mean? "You will fall to me, just like your comrades"? Fang was sure it was referring to Pepin and Nudge, but fall? How?

And then "you will deliver the world to me." Were they all being controlled? Manipulated? Would their efforts just harm the world they were trying so hard to rescue?

In the end, would the flocks be the villains?

Fang leaned against his window sill, looking down into the yard below, then out into the night. He was thinking about going to see Max, but how could he be sure they were on the same side? After all, Max had been the one to insinuate that the leak was within the flocks; _she_ could be the leak, the traitor. Max, so skilled and powerful. She could kill him in one motion.

And Fang didn't want to take that chance. He was better off sleepless than dead.

He wondered if, maybe, she wasn't the bad guy in this scenario. If she wasn't, was she being just as cautious as he was? Or was she at ease?

If it was the latter, Fang would be extremely jealous. He couldn't sleep in a houseful of potential traitors, people who could easily kill him while he dreamt, clueless.

Fang ran his hand through his hair. It was getting longer, shaggier. The ends of his bangs kissed his eyelashes every time he looked up. Soon enough, Dr. Martinez, or Maya, or even Jeb, would insist on a haircut. He didn't really want to trust anyone with a sharp object behind him. Maybe he could ask one of the girls for a hair tie…

For a moment, he thought of going to bed, even if it was just for a couple hours. The sun was starting its tedious climb in the sky already, and it wouldn't be long before everyone else woke up. After all, the early bird catches the worm.

He was actually walking over to the bed, pulling the covers off so that he could crawl under them, but he didn't make it that far. It seemed that all of his peaceful moments were being ruined as of late.

Glass shattered, a window somewhere in the house. Fang sighed in aggravation and exasperation, wondering who was really stupid enough to break into a house full of mutants. Probably a pair of blondes…

Fang jumped over his bed in one smooth leap, making a beeline for the door. It opened before he touched the knob.

It was all a blur. Fang couldn't figure out what was happening. He was on his feet one moment. The next, he was pinned to the floor, face down. One hand gripped his neck, another held his wrist in place, right on the small of his back. There was a knee digging into his spine, right between his wings, and his other hand was squished between the floor and his body. He couldn't see his attacker, but he knew that if this person had any experience at all, he or she could easily kill him.

Fang's breathing picked up speed, even though it was more difficult to circulate the air in and out of his body. He could feel his heart pounding against the carpet.

There were running footsteps, coming toward where he was. Fang hoped beyond hope that it was Max.

"Oh my God! Fang!" Izumi screeched.

_Do something_, he thought, wishing he could borrow Angel's mind control powers, just for a moment.

"And…oh, God, no, it can't be," she said.

Izumi sounded like she was about to say something else, but she was rudely interrupted when she was tackled to the floor, by what Fang could only assume was another assailant.

The person on top of Fang shifted. That was all he needed. He launched himself off of the floor, his attacker dropping. He spun around, hoping to reverse the previous situation, but Fang stopped dead in his tracks when he saw who he had just been about to strangle.

Pepin.

That moment of hesitation was all Pep needed. He lunged at Fang again, throwing him on top of the bed. Oxygen escaped Fang with one unexpected punch to the stomach. He could hear Izumi struggling just outside his doorway, presumably with Nudge.

Pepin's fist also met Fang's nose, while he was trying to formulate a plan to get himself out of this bind, and then help Izumi. A blood vessel, or multiple vessels, burst somewhere, and Fang could feel the blood trickling down, further into his nose. He could taste it in his mouth.

Pepin's features betrayed no emotion, with the exception of his eyes. They were shining with hatred, and not a speck of mercy could be found in their depths.

Lux rounded the corner. "I'm _trying_ to sleep here," she snapped. Then she saw what was going on, saw Pepin on top of Fang, Nudge attacking Izumi. "Holy sh—"

Izumi interrupted her. "Don't just stand there!" she shouted. "Help!"

Lux sprang into action, choosing to help Fang first. She pried Pepin off of him, before smashing her open palm into Pep's nose. Pepin stumbled backwards. Fang jumped on top of him, successfully pinning him down.

"Help Izzy!" Fang commanded; Lux did so.

Nudge was harder to get rid of. She grabbed onto Izumi's fine black hair, ripping some of it out of her scalp. Izzy shrieked.

Lux punched Nudge in the side of her face, yelling, "BACK OFF!"

Nudge teetered sideways, losing her grip on Izumi's hair. Then Nudge lunged for Lux, easily wrapping her hands around Lux's frail neck. One move and it could snap.

Izumi screeched, running at Nudge. "Don't you touch her!" She landed three good punches to her stomach, before Nudge let go and started fighting back. Fang cursed Max for teaching her how to fight.

Pepin wriggled underneath Fang, struggling for control. Fang bent his arm back, trying to elicit a reaction. Pepin only grunted.

Suddenly, Nudge was in the air, and she was flying at Fang. His eyes went wide as he watched her foot soar toward his face, powerless to stop it. He swore he saw stars, and he became disoriented enough that he let go of Pepin.

"Fang!"

Pepin shoved Lux backwards into the wall, hearing a very satisfying _crack_. Lux's hazel eyes rolled around in their sockets, before her eyelids fluttered over them and she sank to the floor. Then Pepin turned to Izzy, who picked up the book lying near Fang's bed, in defense. The title, which only briefly flashed before her eyes, was _The City of Bones_ by Cassandra Clare. Izumi swung out at Pepin, and the book caught the tip of his nose. Though blood began to drip down, he didn't relent. He blocked Izumi's next blow, using the book against her. It came down on her face, the corner digging into her skin. A neat line of crimson traveled down her cheek.

Izumi kicked out, getting his shins. Pepin didn't seem to register the pain.

Meanwhile, Nudge was still battling Fang. His face was bruised and bloodied from her well-placed blows, and she managed to block his every offensive move.

Fang's only hope was Artemis, and he could still barely move without pain.

In his peripheral, Fang was watching Pepin and Izumi. Izzy seemed to shrink with every blow. Pepin finally hit her with the corner of the book at her pressure point. Izzy collapsed to the floor, and Pepin tossed the book on top of her, ignoring the _thud_ it made against her skull.

Then Fang remembered that two other able-bodied people lived in the house.

Jeb and Maya.

Fang needed to make some noise.

Closing his eyes, trying not to think of who he was injuring, Fang kicked. His foot caught Nudge in her stomach, and she flew backwards, hitting the wall and making it vibrate. If that didn't wake Jeb and Maya, who shared the room next door, nothing would.

Pepin was back at Fang's throat, before Fang could celebrate his small victory. Nudge peeled herself off the wall, and went for Fang's legs. She bit him, something that surprised Fang, and hurt like hell. Her hands encircled Fang's ankle and his calf, and then she snapped his leg.

Fang's eyes bulged at the pain. Pepin squeezed his neck. Fang gasped for air, and then, he bellowed. It was nonsense, really, not actual words. But he finally heard footfalls down the hall.

The bedroom door swung open, and revealed Jeb. At his side was Maya.

In an instant, Pepin's hands released Fang, letting him breathe once again. Nudge let go of his leg, but Fang could barely feel the difference. Jeb and Maya were on their own; Fang couldn't help them, not in this condition.

The skirmish didn't last for long. Nudge and Pepin seemed to know what they wanted. Nudge bolted toward the window and the glass shattered under her touch. Pepin kicked Jeb once in the stomach, knocking him down so that his head hit the doorframe, and Maya tried fruitlessly to punch Pep's jaw. Instead, Pepin engulfed her in a sort of big bear hug, seeming to squeeze the very life out of her. Nudge slapped the wall and flew out the window. Pepin followed, taking a screaming and kicking Maya with him.

All Fang could do for a long while was lie on his bed, gasping for the oxygen that seemed to still escape him, and bite back the pain he was feeling everywhere. While his body was busy doing this, his mind was running off doing other things. The most prominent thought in his mind:

Max was right. It _is_ the flocks.

* * *

AN: For the record, I don't have anything against blondes, though I do love blonde jokes. However, one of my closest friends is blonde, and half the time, she's smarter than I am. DX

Also, I don't even own a copy of _The City of Bones_, though I LOVE the entire Mortal Instruments trilogy, by Cassandra Clare. Fang likes the books, too. So, if you haven't read them, they're highly recommended!

Okay, you know that last line just leaves you _itching_ to say something. So say it! REVIEW!


	12. The Wind Up

AN: So, for those of you who were confused out of your brains last chapter, this will hopefully clear things up. At least a bit. The story will start unraveling faster from here on out, as it must, with only eight chapters to go.

But enough of my idle banter for now. Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

The Battle's Just Begun  
Sequel to The Battle of the Exes

Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.

**Chapter Twelve: The Wind Up**

Jeb called our house in the morning, asking for my mom and me to come. I was puzzled as to why the rest of my flock had to stay behind, but I asked no questions. My mom and I walked out the door, and I chose to walk the two blocks to Jeb's house with her, rather than flying.

Jeb had asked my mom to bring her medical supplies. The only thing I could assume was that Artemis needed a bit of help.

It still didn't all make sense. Why should I tag along on a medical trip? I didn't want to complain much, though, because I knew that I'd get to see Fang.

Jeb opened the door as we were walking up the path, and he looked anxious, even a bit ruffled. He ushered us inside impatiently.

"I'm afraid I have some bad news. Really bad news," he told us. The house was quiet, which was quite strange, and even a little eerie.

"What happened?" I prompted. It was better to get the bad news over with.

"Is everyone okay?" was my mother's more specific question.

"No," Jeb answered. He did not elaborate, which just ticked me off.

"What happened?" I repeated. My question was ignored.

We followed Jeb up the stairs, and he led us down the hall to a room that I was very familiar with: Fang's bedroom.

I stiffened, but tried not to let it show. If not everyone was okay, and the first place we went was Fang's room…

Oh no. Oh God, no. Not Fang…

Jeb paused before the closed door. I wanted him to hurry up and get on with the show.

"Last night, there was a break in. Fang was trying to protect us all, everyone. But… Well, I'll just let him tell you."

There was an undeniable sense of relief sweeping through my being. If Fang could tell me, how bad could it really be?

Jeb pushed open the door. The first thing I noticed was a sheet over the window, presumably to hide the fact that it was broken. On the wall to the right of the door, there was a streak of blood, starting about five feet up and going down. In the corner, there were more bloodstains on the wall and carpet.

I didn't really want to look at the bed, but I knew I had to. Fang was there, on top of the covers, his left foot elevated. There was dried blood caked on his swollen face. I could make out bruises on his chest, and similar purple spots forming a sort of sick necklace around his throat.

But he was breathing. When I saw that, I was able to let out the breath that had been trapped in my lungs.

My mother looked at Jeb, her eyes steely. "Why didn't you call me sooner?" she demanded. I thought it was kind of strange, even funny, that the only person I'd ever actually seen her mad at was Jeb.

Jeb sighed. "It's been a long night, Val. We were all disoriented for quite a while, and when we came to, there was quite a bit of straightening up to do. Fang insisted he was alright."

I glared at my boyfriend, who, if he was awake, was seriously out of it. "That's Fang. Stupid macho pride," I muttered. Then I got a bit more serious. "What was it? No normal person could've caused this much damage in a house full of mutants."

"Who, Max. This wasn't a 'what.' It was most definitely a 'who.'"

"Well, then, who?" I shouted.

"It was Nudge and Pepin."

My eyes went wide. "No way."

"Yes. I'm afraid so."

I looked over at Fang. How could Nudge and Pepin have done this?

My mom hurried over to the bed, opening her bag. "Is Fang the worst?"

Jeb nodded. "As far as we can tell."

"Where is everyone else? Lux? Izumi? Artemis? Maya?"

Jeb wore a pained expression at Maya's name. "Artemis is fine; they didn't touch him. Lux and Izumi are resting. Maya…"

"What about her?" I asked warily.

"They took her. They took Maya."

A long string of curses passed through my mind. Again, I asked myself how Nudge and Pep could've done this.

And then I recalled the conversation I'd had with Fang a couple nights ago, the one that I was positive had kept him from my window since.

I'd suggested to Fang that our flocks were the leaks, that _they_ were the ones behind this whole mess.

Nudge and Pepin weren't helping me disprove my point. At all.

{[(/*\)]}

It took my mom a couple of hours to patch up Fang's flock, and Jeb. It turned out that Lux had one hell of a concussion, and Izumi was more battered than a baseball, with cuts all on her face and neck. Artemis's unstable condition hadn't changed. Fang had a broken leg, as well as all his cuts and bruises. Jeb was alright, for the most part; he just had one huge lump on his head.

I sat at Fang's bedside, playing the part of the concerned girlfriend—not that I had to act that. I knew Fang would be fine, and I knew that he'd been through worse. If he didn't get out of this alive, I'd personally kick his ass.

Fang was awake, and had been for a while, explaining to me the events of the night before. I had his hand in mine, and I couldn't seem to stop stroking it. Fang coughed, and then he said, "I think you were right."

I almost hit him. "Shut up! Don't say that!"

He shrugged awkwardly. "It's true. Think about it: Nudge and Pepin were the ones who attacked us, and they certainly did a good job of it."

"But you said so yourself that they didn't act like themselves!" I argued.

"Yeah, no one really acts like themselves when they're beating the crap out of somebody else."

Damn, he had a point.

"But we know Nudge and Pep. They wouldn't do anything like this."

"Uh, hello? They _did_, Max!"

"Ugh, and now we're arguing over it."

"Well, how the hell am I supposed to trust you?" Fang shouted.

Though his question wounded me, I managed to retort, "I've been asking myself the same question."

We were saved from further disagreement when the sheet covering the window fluttered in a breeze, revealing a piece of paper taped to the wall. I stood up and walked over to the window slowly. The sheet flew around again, and I could see that the paper had writing on it. I peeled it off the wall. "Did you put this here?" I asked Fang.

He squinted over at me. "I don't think so…"

I brought it back over to his bed so that we could read it together. It was Nudge's handwriting, I was sure. But the words scrawled were more menacing than anything I could imagine her saying.

I read it aloud: "'Please note that your foolishness has now affected someone else. An innocent, you might say, though some may disagree. You are also no doubt disagreeing amongst yourselves'"—I glance at Fang in astonishment, as we had just been "disagreeing"—"'something made obvious by the reckless behavior of some. I now have nine captives, a rather pretty collection. Two of your comrades have already fallen under my charm, shall we say. They don't recognize you as caretakers; only enemies to be eliminated. And, believe me, they will succeed. Unless you follow my instructions precisely. If you run, I'll know, and I'll kill your two comrades, as well as my other captives. If you do as I say, you shall all live. If you do nothing, more innocent bystanders will be affected.'"

My thoughts flashed to Ella, my half-sister, who was definitely an innocent bystander in this circumstance.

"What does he want us to do?" Fang asked me.

"Hush. I'm getting there." I cleared my throat and continued, "'I want your leaders—both of them—to come to this location'"—I read off the address—"'They will not be harmed if they come alone, and no one else will be. They are to arrive unarmed for a peaceful meeting in which we will negotiate terms of surrender. You have three days.'"

"Is that it?"

"Yes, otherwise I would still be reading."

"That's lame. And all this time I thought he knew what he was doing."

"Well, you have to admit it _is_ pretty good. He knows that we won't risk the lives of those captives," I defended weakly.

Fang shook his head. "Whatever. What do you think we should do?"

I bit my lip.

"Stop doing that."

I stuck my tongue out at him. "Old habits die hard."

He rolled his eyes over-dramatically.

Frankly, I didn't really know what to do. Of course, I wasn't about to admit that, even to Fang, so instead I said, "Why don't we consult the all-knowing duo of Jeb and Valencia?"

"Fine. Go get 'em, yeah?"

I nodded. "I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere." I winked at him.

"Ha-ha, Max. I was hoping to run a marathon while you were gone."

"Of course you were, macho man."

Fang beckoned to me before I got far. "Come here real fast."

I sighed and took two steps over to him. He tugged on my wrist, pulling me down low enough so that he could briefly kiss my lips.

"Okay, you're free."

I smiled, and kissed him once more. "_Now_ I am."

{[(/*\)]}

"Absolutely not!" Jeb exclaimed.

"He's right: you can't go," my mom added.

I pursed my lips. Fang sighed heavily, and then he winced, as I'm sure it hurt him to breathe.

"You're really willing to risk others? He obviously knows what's going on, and he probably even has his next move planned. Maya's gone. Who do you think he'll take next?" I pressed.

My mother paled. "You don't think…?"

"Yes, I do. He'll go for Ella next; I'm sure of it."

Jeb tightened his jaw. "You don't know that, Maximum. Don't scare your mother like that."

"With what? The truth? Don't say it won't happen, Jeb, when your girlfriend's not here!"

Jeb glowered at me. "You can't risk your lives for this, Maximum. Not when you have flocks to lead."

"I won't sit here and watch part of my flock be lost!" I yelled.

"It's unfortunate that Nudge has been captured, but you can't jeopardize the rest of your flock to save her!"

"Oh, yeah? I'm sorry, but this is my _family_! We stick together, _and we don't leave anyone behind_!"

Fang raised his hand politely, like a kid in a school classroom. "If you guys can stop shouting for a moment, you might listen to my suggestion."

I crossed my arms and turned to him. "What?" I snapped.

"I want to save Pep, just as much as you want to save Nudge. I'm sure our flocks will feel the same, so why don't we ask them?"

I had to admit, it was a pretty good idea. Jeb grumbled, "Fine. Max, get your flock over here. Five minutes."

I nodded, and then I launched myself out of the hole in Fang's wall, the one that used to be a window. My flock rushed out fast. I wasn't been able to divulge very much information concerning the break-in, but they went with it. We were back at Jeb's in four minutes.

Artemis was out of bed, limping on his leg. Lux and Izzy were with him, crowded into Fang's room. I ushered my flock inside. Iggy gestured for me to precede him, and I thought it was strange to see him acting like a bit of a gentleman.

Maybe he was practicing his moves as a single man. That was still a strange thought, and one that almost made me shudder.

I brushed those thoughts away smoothly. It was time to be serious. I turned to Fang, signaling for him to start.

Fang propped himself up on his arms. "Okay, we seriously need to discuss something, guys."

"Yes," Lux said. "Let's do it."

Fang smiled. "Let me get to it first, okay, Lux?"

She nodded vigorously, her curls bouncing.

Fang picked up the note from his nightstand. "We found this. It's pretty much asking that Max and I turn ourselves over to this bad guy, whoever it is that has Nudge and Pep and Maya. If we don't, multiple people will be harmed. Like the aforementioned prisoners, and maybe even some of us. Or, as Max fears, Ella."

"And we can't win without taking risks," I added. "Here's the risk; I say we take it."

Angel, in her creepy demonic way, looked up at all of us, a strange smile on her face. "Of course we take it," she said. "But we can't just charge in. We can't afford to let this enemy fool us again, so we need a plan."

Lux nodded forcefully in agreement. "We do. And I like the sound of your plan."

"Simple, but functional."

Fang and I looked at the two youngest members of our respective flocks quizzically. "What plan?"

And the two scarily brilliant little girls explained to us the plan.

This was gonna be one hell of a dog fight.

* * *

AN: I'm having a lot of fun with this story.(:

(By the by, that last line was inspired by the last line of the pilot episode of _Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles_. After all, immature writers imitate; mature writers steal. And I have now stolen that quote because I can not remember where I found it.)

Ahem. I have another book recommendation: have any of you guys ever read Herman Melville's _Moby Dick_? I'm currently reading it for my lit class, and though I never thought I'd like classic literature, I'm seriously enjoying it. The prose is absolutely beautiful, and the story, I think, is more than it seems. As in, it's not just a tale of revenge. I don't know really; I'm not very far yet. But, hey, it's an American classic and your English teachers are sure to be impressed, right? ;]

REVIEWS are like the little prizes in cereal boxes that every little kid wants. (Face it: you know half of the cereal you got as a kid was only because you wanted the toy.) REVIEW!


	13. The Capture

AN: Thank you to...

**The Faery Rebel**  
**Kina Kalamari  
Kit-Kat-AnGel  
desperatelyobvious  
Tinaisawesome  
PsychoticBlaze**  
**Violetfangs  
PurpleTea88**

...for reviewing last chapter. You guys rock.(:

ENJOY!

* * *

The Battle's Just Begun  
Sequel to The Battle of the Exes

Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.

**Chapter Thirteen: The Capture**

Everything was ready the day after next. Fang and I left the house first, unarmed and alone, just as we'd been directed. I helped Fang out the door of Jeb's house, supporting most of his weight. We took off awkwardly, pushing away from each other to give our wings space. Fang would have to stay in the air most of the time, and we hadn't wanted to wait for his leg to heal. By then, our three days might be up.

The address was located about twenty miles west of the neighborhood we'd been living in. Jeb's colleagues—the others who'd been working to find this bad guy—were already near the location. They would be ready to move in when the signal was given. Jeb and my mom were with them, Ella was at school, and the flocks would be leaving in half an hour. Everything was ready to be set in motion, like a long line of dominoes.

For some reason, though, I had a feeling that this guy had something different in mind than friendly negotiations.

"What's the address again?" Fang asked.

I recited it off the top of my head.

Fang pointed to a street sign below, the letters of which I could barely make out. "There's the street."

"Let's get lower."

The two of us descended slowly, letting our wings catch the wind like sails so that we could glide. "I see it," Fang said. "Two more, on the right."

I swooped down, making a smooth landing. Fang stumbled to a halt, careful not to put weight on his bad leg. Remind me to invest in crutches next time.

I helped him as he limped along, and we reached the entrance to the building. This wasn't a towering skyscraper, or a foreboding warehouse. No. This was a _house_. You know, a _casa_, those things people live in. A very cute, quaint, little cottage-type house. Yeah, this was where Fang and I were supposedly negotiating the "terms of surrender." Our surrender. Yeah, like _that_ was ever gonna happen. But we might as well not burst this psycho's bubble.

"So…do we ring the doorbell?" Fang inquired sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes. "Why show him that much respect?" I reached for the doorknob with the hand that wasn't supporting Fang, and opened the door, in an almost violent way.

"Gee, Max. Save your strength for…"

Fang didn't finish the sentence. I knew he was talking about the fight, though, the one that would go down in about half an hour.

Inside the creepy cottage (when your bad guy lives in a cute little house, that's just downright creepy), the lights were all on. There was a wall in front of us, and a room to each side.

"Left or right?" I asked.

"Right."

Fang and I wandered into the right room, which turned out to be a kitchen, one Iggy would've absolutely hated. It was tiny and cramped and the stovetop looked burned. It was empty, aside from aforementioned stove, and a few cupboards with hanging doors. We continued through the next doorway, which led into a similarly small living room.

Now, this was where we found the good stuff. In the middle of the room, tied to seven different chairs, were seven different captives. They were all gagged and four of them were dead asleep. At least, I hoped they were asleep.

Let me tell you, it was quite a sight. I looked at each face, taking in the population of our "arch enemy" list, and a few inhabitants of our "unknown" list, and one person who was on the "good guy" list. Anne Walker, Roland ter Borcht, Brigid Dwyer, William Pruitt, Marian Janssen, Hans Gunther-Hagen, and Maya Dogum.

Dr. G-H was wide awake, and he seemed to recognize us immediately. I tried to ignore the disappoint in his eyes when he realized it was Fang at my side, and not Dr. Uber-Goober's idea of my perfect mate. I resisted the urge to stick out my tongue at him. The doc gestured with his head at the wall behind us. I turned awkwardly, keeping my feet in place. I didn't see anything.

Fang whispered, "Don't worry; I'll keep an eye on them."

I nodded and turned the rest of the way, still managing to support Fang while he faced the other way. There was a sheet of paper taped to the wall, and, once again, the note was written in Nudge's handwriting. That was something that was seriously starting to concern me.

"It's a letter," I told Fang. I squinted a bit, trying to make out the sloppy letters. "It says, 'Take as many as you can carry. You have one week to get the ones you take to whatever locations you choose. Pick wisely. The house is set to explode after three days of your receiving my letter. The ones you don't take with you will die. A week after you have taken the captives you have chosen, I will come for the rest of your flock. I suggest you set your affairs in order.'"

Fang snorted. "So much for negotiations."

The paper lifted from the wall, like there was a breeze.

I looked around cautiously. "I don't think that's all."

"You wanna check the other rooms?"

"Yeah. Let's." We still had a good fifteen-twenty minutes to kill before the reinforcements arrived.

The next door revealed a bathroom with a broken toilet and a dirty, rust-caked shower. I frowned, especially when there was nothing behind the cracked mirror but a dead cockroach in an otherwise empty medicine cabinet.

"Next," I said, sighing.

I assumed it was supposed to be a bedroom. There was a closet of sorts, and lots of cobwebs and dust. (And I thought _my_ room was a dump.)

"If there's something vicious in here, it would have to be an army of dust bunnies," Fang said.

I smirked. "Yeah. C'mon, let's keep going."

The next door brought us back to square one: the front door.

"That's one small house," I commented.

Fang nodded. "Let's go look at our crop of captives, and that note. See if we can find a loophole."

We would've gone back to the living room, where the seven hostages were, but we were interrupted in our endeavor. We had just made it to the kitchen doorway, when the front door imploded. Splinters shot toward the two of us, and we shielded our eyes. I felt them prickling in my skin.

I admit, I was hoping that this was the arrival of our flocks. If they showed, then we could definitely take advantage of the "take as many as you can carry" bit of the note. It was clear to me that our guy wasn't here, which meant that he couldn't possibly know if it was just Fang and me, or an entire SWAT team.

I turned my head to glance at the intruder, doing my best to still hold on to Fang. I would be pleasantly surprised if it did turn out to be the flocks, because they were never on time for anything, let alone _early_.

I was not pleasantly surprised.

I felt a blow hit my jugular, and I could just make out the figure. No, it wasn't a freaky ninja. No, it wasn't some menacing adversary.

It was Nudge. _My_ Nudge.

I could feel my heart breaking in my chest. Little Nudge who never shut up, attempting to kick my butt.

Of course, I wasn't about to let that go down.

There was a counter to my right, next to the doorway. I propped Fang against it like a life-size doll. I saw him wince when I accidentally bumped into his leg, but I had no time to stop. I launched myself at my former comrade, trying to ignore the fact that she _was_, in fact, my former comrade. If I overlooked that little detail, it would be a lot easier to beat her up.

My foot landed on her abdomen, letting loose a _whoosh_ of air in a splendid sound. It would have been much more splendid had Nudge not grabbed hold of my foot, and twisted my ankle round. I bit my tongue to keep in the pitiful sound of pain.

But, of course, _I_ was the one who taught Nudge to fight. Every move she had was adopted from me, and only changed slightly. This would be a piece of cake.

Okay, so it wasn't as easy as I had thought it would be. Nudge had obviously been watching too many action movies.

There was the sound of movement, like someone running through the kitchen. I glanced over, dreading what I would see. If Nudge was here…

…then Pepin wouldn't be far behind.

I could take on the both of them at once.

Nudge swung her closed fist in my direction. I tried to dodge out of the way, but Pepin had me _way_ too distracted. Pep was in the kitchen. Fang was in the kitchen. Pep could kick ass. Fang was crippled.

Not good.

I swear I heard bones crack as Nudge's hand collided with my face. I backhanded her hard enough that she flew back a couple of feet, and then I lunged for Pepin, before he could make his first move on Fang. I would've stopped him, but Nudge managed to grab hold of the hem of my shirt, making me fly backward. My wings instinctively tucked themselves in tighter.

Okay, so maybe I couldn't take on the both of them.

I watched as Fang joined his hands together, still leaning against the counter, and let his connected fists whack Pepin. He saw me watching, and I must have looked concerned, because he said, "Don't worry; I can handle it."

Nudge didn't let me stay distracted for long. She flung me at the door way, and my face brushed against the splintered wood. I could feel the blood dripping down my cheeks, and I made sure to close my eyes tight until I hit the ground.

This had not been a good idea, not at all. It had been a trap, and an obvious one at that. We just played into it like fools.

Still, I fought on, waiting, hoping that my flock would show up soon. I could see Fang from the corner of my eye, struggling against Pep. But it wasn't Pepin; it couldn't be. Pep was sweet and easygoing. This person here, attacking my boyfriend, was a monster.

I looked into Nudge's eyes. They were hard as stone and just as callous. These weren't my friend's eyes, happy and carefree. This couldn't be Nudge.

"What do we do?" Fang asked, blocking a punch. Even though I had wanted him to stay out of the fighting, I should have known he wouldn't.

"Wait for them. They should be here soon!" I shouted.

I watched, agape, as Pep kicked Fang in the shin. _The injured one._ I felt the rage bubbling up within me, seeming to start in my toes, and then rise like a long-dormant geyser. Fang's face, usually impassive, twisted in pain. It took a lot to cause Fang pain.

I slammed Nudge into the wall behind her, with as much force as I could muster. She slid back and crashed into the wall, leaving a Nudge-shaped dent in it. She started to reach for me again, in the quickest recovery _ever_, but then pieces of plaster, knocked loose from the impact, rained down on her. One particularly big piece of rubble landed right in the middle of her forehead and her eyes rolled back. Nudge's body fell limp and I sighed in relief.

Behind me, in the kitchen, Fang was still trying to fight his losing battle. With Pepin's well-placed kick, Fang had collapsed on the linoleum, which was now stained with blood in some parts. Pepin was unrelenting, and Fang looked almost as bad as when I had seen him the morning after the break in.

I tackled Pepin, getting him away from Fang. And then the geyser exploded. My fists and my feet were flying everywhere, moving so fast that I could barely see them, and Pep could not effectively stop them. Soon enough, it was _his_ blood that stained the floor.

For most of our little skirmish, I was yelling nonsense at the top of my lungs. But now, my words took form...

"You...stay...away...from...my boyfriend... Don't...you..._ever_...lay...a hand...on him...again!"

My words were efficiently punctuated with punches, like I was trying to physically shove the message into his brain. I swear I would've kept going, I swear I would've knocked the lights out of him, I swear I would've continued, no matter how much blood I watched flow out of his body. I would have, believe me.

But a firm pair of hands wrapped around my forearms, just when I was raising my fist for another blow. I fought against them for a moment, before a voice joined in.

"Max, stop. Stop it! You'll kill him!" Fang insisted.

I flinched.

"Max, we can still save him. I still need him, no matter how far gone he is."

I was ready to break down and cry, horrified at what I'd been about to do.

Fang heard the footsteps, too. And then Izzy said, "Wow. What happened here?"

Fang looked at me meaningfully, as though asking if he could let go without me going ballistic. His hands unwrapped themselves from around my wrists, and I let my limbs flop to my sides.

"We were attacked, unexpectedly," Fang told her, rising to his feet. Or, _attempting_ to rise to his feet. When his bad leg gave out, Izumi rushed over to help him.

"Sorry we're late. The wind was working against us for the entire journey."

"It's okay. You didn't miss much. Just Max and me getting beat up again. You've seen that enough lately."

Izumi nodded, smirking. "Well, we were also held up by something else..."

"What?" Fang questioned curiously.

"Nudge and Pep had back up. Just take a look at the front yard."

Fang glanced at me, and I got up, feeling sort of like a zombie. I was still trying to wrap my head around the idea that I'd just been about to murder Pepin.

I followed Fang and Izzy to the front yard (Fang was leaning on Izumi for support), and I was stunned by the sight that greeted me. There, sprawled out on the front lawn, was a miniature army of the masked ninja people, and _our_ mini army of whitecoats. (I never thought there'd be a day when I was actually kind of _thankful_ to see the once-dreaded whitecoats.) The rest of the flocks were there, too, along with Jeb and my mom, who both looked uncharacteristically fierce. (Well, it was uncharacteristic for my mother.)

Fortunately, it was mostly the ninjas that were sprawled on the lawn, useless. And I was proud to see that every member of both flocks was still standing. (Aside from Nudge and Pep...)

"Are you guys okay?" I asked, trying to forget that Nudge and Pepin most definitely were _not_ okay.

Dylan nodded, speaking for the rest. "Yeah. Just a few scratches is all. You and Fang seem to have gotten the worst of it."

Fang licked some blood off his split lip. "Great."

Jeb asked us what had happened, so Fang and I explained to him. And then I remembered our lovely hostages.

"We should probably get them out," my mom suggested. "We'll each take one, aside from Fang." Fang frowned, but we all knew it was the best decision. He could barely carry himself, let alone a whole other body.

"Can you fly?" I inquired.

Fang nodded. "Yeah. I'll meet you guys back at the house. I guess I'll just hang out with Artemis until you get back…"

With help from Izumi, Fang was able to take off, heading in the direction of Jeb's house, where Artemis waited. My mother had banned him from accompanying us on this mission, as a precaution, something she had tried to do with Fang as well, but none of us had wanted to guess at what might happen if we so blatantly ignored our instructions.

My flock of (currently) five, plus Lux and Izumi, wandered into the little cottage, with my mom and Jeb at our heels. Angel plucked Nudge out of the wall, while Izumi scooped up Pepin. I led everyone else further inside, until we got to the living room, where the seven hostages waited. Jeb rushed to Maya's side, and the rest of us just sorta picked someone we didn't hate _too_ much. That, of course, meant that Dylan went for Dr. What's-His-Face, Lux went for her fellow redhead (I swear, Lux is the only carrot top on my _good_ side), my mom picked up my other mother (aka, Marian Janssen), Gazzy found his Snickuhs buddy, ter Borcht, Iggy located the Headhunter, and I ended up taking good ol' Anne Walker.

Hey, at least we weren't breaking the rules: Take as many as you can carry. It's not our fault that we just happened to be able to carry them _all_.

And so, the houses of my mother and Jeb had a severe increase in population. I mean, my mom's _way_ too hospitable to, say, lock them in the basement or something. No way. Just 'cause more than one of them happened to be on my bad list? Not good enough of a reason to lock them away. So we had to be nice to the crazies.

Not really my idea of fun.

* * *

AN: Villain: (not keeping track!). Flocks: One. At least it's not zero anymore...

I'm almost done writing!

Okay, that's a lie. I've got like four chapters to go. Which is, I guess, _kinda_ almost done...

REVIEWS are like FREETIME. I seem to be lacking both lately. REVIEW!


	14. The Wind Down

AN: You guys get some FAX in this chapter. AND I only have, like, two and a half chapters left to write. :D I'm just now getting to this one part that I've been wanting to write since the beginning. It's lots of fun.

Well, I don't have much to say at the moment, so I shall let you guys read on. This is a pretty chill chapter, though it _does_ have some slight OOC-ness. Sorry. But I hope you like it anyway.(:

* * *

The Battle's Just Begun  
Sequel to The Battle of the Exes

Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.

**Chapter Fourteen: The Wind Down**

My mom volunteered me to help her with the crazies. They were in pretty bad shape, as most of them had been in captivity for months. They were injured, undernourished, and dead quiet. It was as though they believed any word they might say could have the potential to kill them.

But Jeb was determined that we would get through to them, somehow.

Of all the people I wanted to lock up, however, only two _did_ get locked up, and they were the two who I wanted to count as good guys.

Nudge and Pepin.

They got the royal treatment, hanging out behind lock and key. And the one key was hidden, in a location only known to Fang, my mom, and myself.

That's as harsh as it got.

Once our crazies were rested up enough, my mom (who had been showing a strange brutality recently) literally dragged Hansie and Snickuhs down to her clinic, slammed them down into a pair of chairs, and said, "Now, one of you had _better_ start explaining how the hell I go about getting Nudge and Pepin back, before I make use of the many interesting implements found in a veterinarian's office."

And I had thought that threatening was _my_ job.

Dr. Fantastic stared straight ahead, nibbling on his lip to keep it from trembling. Rollie-Pollie tapped his foot and looked up at the ceiling like he was tracing patterns in the randomly placed dots, making constellations.

My mom turned away from the pair of them and walked purposefully towards her cabinet. As Fang and I watched on, she pulled out a little packet full of sterile surgery equipment. She tore it open and reached for the shiny, sharp scalpel.

I practically flinched just looking at it.

Now, if I, Maximum-Freaking-Ride, flinched at a little scalpel, just imagine Dr. Hansel-and-Gretel and Snickuhs man, cowering in fright at the sight of my mother.

My mom toyed with it for a moment, spinning it between her fingers. Then Hansie blurted, "Please, we've had enough torture already."

Despite the meaning of his words, my mom grinned. "Ah, he speaks."

Snickuhs found his voice shortly after. "He's vight: please don't hurt us."

My mom looked like she had half a mind to ignore this, since they hadn't yet answered her question, but I stepped in. "Don't. They sound like they'll cooperate."

Fang looked at me, a silent assurance that he would support me no matter what.

I planted my feet right in front of Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and peered down at the two of them. They eyed me nervously. I lowered myself until I was at their level (just in height, thankfully), and I very calmly commanded, "Tell me how to get them back."

They didn't respond.

I continued, "You guys more than likely got them into this mess, with your demented dynamics, and so now I expect you to drag them back out." I stood up straight and crossed my arms expectantly. "Anytime now."

The Hansinator and Rollie-Pollie-Ollie glanced at each other, like they weren't sure if they should or shouldn't give me what I wanted. Wisely, they chose the former.

"Ve'll help," Snickuhs promised.

"Just don't hurt us," Hansie begged.

"Wouldn't dream of it," I agreed.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee seemed like they weren't sure who should go first.

"Do you need help deciding?" I urged.

"N-no." Hansie looked at Snickuhs. Snickuhs looked at Hansie.

Then they said in unison, "Marian knows."

Ah. Marian Janssen. The woman who had once claimed to be my mother.

Of course, in a way, she kinda was. I'd found out that she was the one in charge of my design, the one who had pretty much sewn together my DNA. My architect, designer, and creator.

I glanced up at Fang. "You know where to find her?"

He nodded. "Be back in five." He ducked out of my mom's office, still limping slightly on his injured leg.

"You sure about this, Max?" my mother asked skeptically. "Are you really going to trust these guys with Nudge and Pepin under the knife?"

"Yes. Because none of them will be holding the knife. You'll be."

"What?"

"You follow their directions. They tell you what to do, how to fix them. You have the knife. Nudge and Pep are safe."

"And what if they misguide me?"

I sighed. "I'm gonna trust you to know enough about what you're doing to not kill them."

My mother nodded.

The thing was, I wasn't sure if I actually _could_ trust her. I mean, yeah, she's my mom and all, but the way she'd been acting…it had me seriously weirded out. Like that whole bit with the scalpel? It just didn't compute. And then at the cottage, too, she'd been acting strange…

Fang and I were sure that the leak was coming from within. We were sure that there was a traitor among us.

But could it really be my mother?

{[(/*\)]}

Marian Janssen was no help, really. She refused to disclose any information involving Nudge and Pep with Fang and I standing there, even though they were _our_ flock members. Hansie and Snickuhs stayed silent, watching her like a worm keeps its eye on a hawk.

Finally, my mom gave in, asking Fang and I to leave so that she could actually get somewhere.

This did nothing to dissuade me from my suspicions.

But Fang and I complied, leaving her office.

"I don't like this," I told him.

I was really going into this blind. I had no way to know if Fang and I were really on the same side, but I decided that I would put my faith in him, because he had yet to fail me when it really mattered. Besides, I found that it was hard for me to _not_ trust Fang.

"What do you mean?" he asked, putting his arm around my shoulders so that it would be easier for him to walk.

"Is it just me, or is my mother acting…bizarre?" My eyes shifted in the direction of the closed door of her office. We were striding away.

Fang shrugged awkwardly. "Kind of, I guess. But we're all stressed out, and hardly behaving like we normally do."

"You have a point there…but do you think we should trust her with this?"

"You mean Nudge and Pep? I don't see why not. Dr. Martinez has stood by us for a long time, and things have always been good when we hang around her. Well, with the exception of the jam we're in now."

"Yeah, but…"

Fang stopped and tilted my chin upwards with his fingers. "Max. Stop questioning the loyalty of everyone you love. You'll only give yourself a headache." He kissed my forehead.

"Well, what's your excuse, then?" I challenged.

He chuckled. "I stopped questioning everyone. Instead, I've decided to trust you."

"But what if you end up trusting the wrong person?"

"Then I'll have to pay for it in the end. But I don't think I'm wrong in trusting _you_, am I?"

It was a real question, I knew. If, for instance, _I_ was the bad guy, I would've won right then and there.

But I wasn't the bad guy.

"No, you're not. And…"

"Yes, Max?"

I almost didn't want to ask the question, because I was too afraid of the answer to admit that I was afraid of it.

"Can I trust you?"

Fang looked thoughtful for a moment. "Yeah. Yeah, you can."

{[(/*\)]}

That was why I went to Fang's that night. Of course, things had changed. Being pretty much the only person in his house without a roommate, Fang had ended up taking on _two_ of the crazies, the Headhunter and Dr. Hotshot. Snickuhs Man was at my house, staying in Iggy and Dylan's room, because I figured he would be no match for the two of them.

The third crazy staying at Fang's was my absolute _favorite_ person in the world.

And yes, by that I mean the Red-Haired Wonder Part Deux, Fang's Number One Fan, or Dr. Stupendous.

Fine, Brigid Dwyer.

Excuse me while I go vomit.

Wait, take that back. I don't want the stomach flu again.

If she dared to so much _look_ at my boyfriend wrong, I would string her up by her toes and hold her out my second-story window. And we all remember what happens when you fall out my window with no wings or bird kid friends.

_SPLAT!_

The fun I'd have…

Sadly, though, I didn't get my old roommate back. I got stuck with Anne Walker, who snored like a hog. So, in order to get away and find my boyfriend (and help him get away), I climbed out of bed, grabbed my new sweater—WHICH NOW HAD HOLES—and jumped through my window. The flight to Fang's was (thankfully) uneventful, and I swooped onto his window sill, gliding under the glass of his brand new window. I was glad to see that he still kept his it open.

I tiptoed across the carpet, careful not to wake His Royal Pain in the Ass and Dr. Hansel-and-Gretel. I suddenly pitied Fang, because the pair of them snored louder than a fleet of lawnmowers.

I climbed into Fang's bed, gently shaking his shoulder, only to realize that he wasn't there. His bed was just a mess of sheets and pillows.

I glanced at the open bedroom door, hoping that, wherever he was, he had gone willingly.

I crept down the stairs, quiet as a mouse on Christmas Eve. The only sound I could pick up on was the hum of the refrigerator.

"Fang?" I whispered.

There was no answer. I rounded the corner into the TV room.

"Fang?" I called again.

"Here," he said from behind me.

I nearly jumped a foot in the air, my heartbeat picking up crazily.

"God, Fang, make some noise, will you?"

"Sorry. I wasn't expecting you."

"What're you doing out of bed?"

"I could ask you the same question."

"I came to find you."

"Miss me that much?"

"Yeah," I confessed.

Fang's eyes crinkled with his smile. "I've missed you, too. You want a snack?"

I peered into the dark kitchen, and I saw the milk and cookie on the table. There was one huge bite missing from the cookie. I grinned. "Are you sure it's Lux we have to hide the jar from, and not you?"

Fang let his arms wind around me, shaking with silent laughter. "I just made that up to have them all to myself," he joked.

"I hope you share, or I might just have to reveal your little secret," I whispered, pressing my lips against his neck.

"Anything for you."

For a few minutes, Fang and I actually ate our cookies like the mature eighteen-year-olds we were. Then, to make sure that our secret was kept, I suggested that we wash the glasses that we had used for milk.

That was when the kindergartners surfaced.

I splashed some water at Fang, very much on purpose.

"Hey, that's wet," he protested.

"No duh. It's water. What'd you expect?"

Catching on, Fang filled up his now-clean glass with the tap water, half-way. "You sure? I say we find out."

And with that, he dumped the water on me, while I stood in shock, drenched from my shoulders to my belly button.

"Oh, hell no. You did _not_."

"Evidently, I did."

I shoved at him playfully, and took the opportunity to grab the shower-style faucet, and turn it on, full-blast.

Of course, being me, I have impeccable aim. Fang was soon begging for me to stop, but I just cackled mercilessly. The water just slid down his bare chest, as he didn't have a shirt on to be soaked like I did. His hair was sticking to his forehead and the very top of his nose. Though he was spitting water, I could still make out the smile dancing on his lips.

"Max—"

I shut off the water when he slipped and fell to the floor. His leg was still healing, and I hadn't meant for him to really get hurt.

"Fang, are you okay?" I stepped over, examining him, hoping he wasn't terribly injured. He wasn't smiling anymore.

"Max…" he groaned.

I gasped. "Crap, crap, crap…!"

He moaned some more, while I tried to figure out what to do. Then—very suddenly—I felt a sharp tug and I was falling on top of Fang, the little imp, who was chuckling again and clutching my wrists.  
I smacked his chest. "No fair!" I complained.

He kissed my lips. "Very fair. Now you're just as wet as I am."

"You tricked me, though!"

"Who ever said I had to play by the rules?"

I frowned. This was turning into another argument that I wouldn't win. Besides, I was quickly getting distracted by the fact that I was on top of a half-naked boyfriend. Fortunately, he was my boyfriend.

"What, no snarky retort this time?" Fang asked, though his tone had changed like my mood: from playful to preoccupied.

"No. Why fight a losing battle?"

Fang's hand released one of my wrists and stroked my face. He pulled me down to him.

Kissing Fang had changed recently. Sometimes, it was urgent, heated. Others, it was merely a necessity, like oxygen. And other moments, moments like this, it was a mixture of both. I needed him, and he needed me, but we could both feel the fire.

Fire. What a wondrous element. It isn't really found, but made. The wind happens on its own, as does water, and the earth is a mystery. But fire is created by the right balance and combination of certain ingredients. Fang and I achieved this chemistry flawlessly.

Hands roaming everywhere, under my shirt, one in my feathers, another on my stomach. I let my hands tangle in Fang's sodden hair, combing through knots and making new ones. He was underneath me, trying to restrain himself at first with only gentle kisses, but neither of us could resist the fire for long.

When my sweater fell off my shoulders, and my shirt began to follow soon after, I suddenly had no idea what I was doing. I couldn't remember the moment in which my legs had landed on either side of Fang, the moment in which I started straddling him. It was like I'd been a sort of trance and only now woken up.

But I didn't want to stop. There was no way in hell I wanted to stop, and it didn't seem like Fang wanted to, either. I opened my eyes briefly to see him. His features were soft, relaxed, like he had left behind all his worries.

Careless. Until the lights flipped on.

Fang and I froze, not even moving to get up or trying to look decent. My lips were still pressed against his.

We both heard the muffled voices of Jeb and someone else, one of the crazies, I presumed. They had flipped on the lights and kept walking, doing so in every room in order to flood the house with light.

Thank God.

The moment we couldn't hear their voices anymore, I shot up, pulling on my still-damp shirt, and then my sweater. Fang looked groggy, like he was trying to wake up from a dream.

"That was close," I offered, trying to catch my breath and slow down my racing heart.

"Yeah," Fang agreed. "Next time, let's just stay in one of our rooms."

I nodded. My voice was raspy when I said, "Yeah. Let's."

* * *

AN: told ya there'd be FAX. And it was steamy FAX.

So, I'm currently toying with this idea for a oneshot, going off of _ANGEL_. It would be involving the Max/Fang/Maya thing going on (screw Dylan). I kinda just wanna get inside Maya's head... Think I should go for it?

Ahem. So, lately, I've been having some issues with STUPID PEOPLE. Like Person A and Person B that I mentioned a few chapters back. And a truckload of other stupid people. Sadly, I'm among those stupid people because I seem to have misplaced my thinking hat, and without it, I can't think very well. But you guys can help me with the world's stupid problem: Every time you hit the pretty little REVIEW button below, a stupid person will recover some brain cells. If you hit it enough times (say, TEN), I might even find my thinking hat! So...REVIEW?


	15. Fight it Out

AN: Man, my sorta spring break is almost over.): I've spent it reading and sleeping, and I swear I haven't written a word. And it barely counts as a spring break 'cause I still had to go to school for two classes. Don't even ask; it hurts my brain just to think about my weirdo crazy schedule.

Ahem. Holy Snickers bars, it's Chapter Fifteen. O: I hope you enjoy it!(:

* * *

The Battle's Just Begun  
Sequel to The Battle of the Exes

Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.

**Chapter Fifteen: Fight it Out**

I went back to my mom's house after that, changing as soon as I could so as to avoid any questions of my whereabouts and my dampened state. Once I was in a fresh pair of jeans and a dry T-shirt, I went downstairs, following the aroma of bacon wafting up the steps. Of course, it was coming from the kitchen, and it was the product of Iggy's handiwork. I spotted him at the stove, wielding a fork, and listening to the meaty strips sizzle on the skillet. A couple feet away, Dylan and Gazzy were making waffles.

"Good morning," I greeted cheerily. "Can I help?"

The three of them grew tense, theirs faces melting into similar expressions of horror, before they simultaneously shouted at me, "NO!"

I grinned, proud to have irked them. It was kind of cute to see the three guys of my flock cooking breakfast for everyone else in the house.

I wandered back upstairs to track down Angel, Ella, my mom, and our half of the crazies. The bathroom was occupied, and when I knocked, it was Anne's voice that greeted me. After we had broken through Tweedledum and Tweedledee's shells, everyone else seemed to loosen up.

In some cases, that was good. In others, not so much.

My mom's bedroom door was closed, but I could hear voices behind it. Ella's bedroom was silent, and when I glanced at the clock, I knew why: it was nine o'clock, and it was, presumably, a school day. A peek inside her room revealed that her bed was unmade, the lights were off, and the green curtains were pulled shut. I strolled over, as I hadn't been in there for a long time. She'd been on rocky ground with everyone in my flock ever since she and Iggy broke up. No one had been able to look her in the eye.

Ella's room was, I suppose, like any other normal sixteen-year-old girl's. Of course, Ella wasn't normal: her half-sister (aka, me) had a pair of wings stuck in her back and she lived in a house with five people that she had no relation to, all of which were in a similar condition as the aforementioned half-sister and on a mission to save the world.

Yup. That is definitely not normal.

Still, I think Ells handled it pretty well. She had lots of friends, she had good grades, and she was going to graduate, and grow up, and the whole shebang. I was so proud of her.

The walls of Ella's bedroom were a soft purple, like the color of Easter eggs. She had one small bookcase in there, with three shelves, one of which held various little trinkets. Still, I could see where Fang got his taste in books. She had a desk by the window that was covered with textbooks and school papers, and I wondered if she ever actually got any work done on it. Also on the desk, almost invisible, was a little red laptop computer. I remember that it was a birthday gift, from me and my flock. We had all chipped in money and been able to get it for her. She had been ecstatic.

Across from the desk was a tall dresser with two open drawers. The closet was to the right of the door, and I knew from experience (cringe) that it was full of clothes and shoes and various other fashionably torturous devices. Next to her unmade bed was a white nightstand with three drawers. On top of this was a lamp and a photo frame that was faced down. Curious, I drifted inside, heading right over to the nightstand. I laid a hand on the back of it, let my thumb catch underneath it, and tilted it up.

I was actually kind of surprised by the sight that greeted me. Behind the thin sheet of glass was a photograph of Iggy and Ella, holding each other close. They both had ridiculous grins on their faces, like they were laughing at something tremendously funny. Ella's eyes were shut, but Iggy's were open, and he was looking right at her. I get that my right wing man can't see, but his blue eyes were so much brighter in the picture than I had ever seen them, and they were also full to the brim with love.

It was the same look I could pick out in Fang's eyes whenever he looked at me.

In the bottom corner of the frame, right on top of the photo, was a crinkled piece of paper. Written on it were the clumsy words, "I love you." I could tell Iggy had written it because each letter seemed to be threatening to crash into its neighbor, and the words were spaced far apart.

It made me smile, I admit. I just thought it was so adorable. I almost put the picture back the way I'd found it, with the glass touching the wood of the nightstand, but I decided against it. I placed it back properly, so that the photo and the note could be seen just by glancing in the direction of the nightstand.

"MAAAX!" Dylan wailed. "BREAKFAAAST!"

I rolled my eyes. "Coming!" I shouted back.

Sure enough, breakfast was ready and everyone was piling their plates with food. And everyone I'd gone looking for—a mission that I'd forgotten—had turned up. Angel, my mom, ter Borcht, Anne, and Marian were all there, stuffing their faces.

"Sheesh, where'd you disappear to?" Iggy asked. I assumed he was going for seconds, restocking his plate once more.

I speared the waffle he was going for, and suppressed a smile, remembering the sweet little note. "Oh, I was just hanging around upstairs," I told him truthfully.

"I meant last night," Iggy said matter-of-factly.

I stiffened. "Huh? What're you talking about?"

Iggy snickered and I almost smacked him. "I'm just messing, Max. Don't sound so surprised. I'm sure you were tucked up safe in your bed last night."

"Did you and Dylan manage to get any sleep?"

"Yeah. We're not as paranoid as you, ya know."

Was I really paranoid? Well, I supposed that if Iggs had been thinking about our predicament as in-depth as I had, he would be cautious, too…

Iggy and I leaned against the counter to eat, as every seat at the table was taken. I was munching on a piece of bacon when Iggy asked, "Max…have you talked to…Ella lately?" His voice was barely more than a whisper.

Again, the photo and the note flashed through my mind. I could only guess that they _both_ missed each other.

"No, actually. She's been rather elusive as of late. And she has school."

"Well, today's Friday, which means she might be home tomorrow. Do you think I should try talking to her?"

Now, I knew that if Ella was anything like me with guys, Iggy talking to her would _not_ yield good results. The first time Fang had tried talking to me, after we'd broken up and he'd come back, even though it had been two years, I had cracked him in the jaw. I wasn't concerned about Iggy getting hurt, but I was afraid that Ella might accidentally hurt _herself_ trying to hurt Iggy.

Pathetic, I know. I mean, who does that?

I took a bite of my waffle. "I don't see why not," I lied. "I mean, you guys broke up; you're over each other. There's no reason you can't be friends."

Iggy's eyebrows crinkled, and for a moment I thought he would figure out that I was just messing with him. I knew they weren't over each other.

"I guess…"

I bit back a laugh. He was buying into it!

"But do you really think she's over me?"

I swallowed my food before speaking, like a good girl. "I don't know. Why would I know?"

Iggy sighed. "Thanks, Max," he said sarcastically. Then he dumped his plate in the sink and walked away.

My poor, lovesick friend.

{[(/*\)]}

After breakfast, I went over to Jeb's with my flock and my mom. Apparently we had some business to discuss concerning Nudge and Pepin.

Jeb turned to my mother, getting right down to it. I wondered, for a fleeting moment, if we should have hired a babysitter for the crazies.

"Val, you have the floor."

My mom wasted no time. "Dr. Janssen explained to me the procedure to reverse whatever was done to Nudge and Pepin."

I clapped my hands. "Okay. Good. Let's go through with it."

"It's not that simple, Max. It's a risky procedure. According to Marian, chips were planted in their brains. It would be much riskier than the operation I performed to rid you of your chip."

I tried not to wince remembering that. That whole ordeal just kind sucked. I mean, I was doped up, confessed my love to Fang, acted like a fool, and temporarily lost the use of my hand.

Fang's mouth pulled into a frown. He had been against _that_ operation. I didn't think that he would allow this one.

"Is there any hope of them getting better without an operation?" I asked, for Fang's sake.

My mom bit her lip (so _that's_ where I picked up the habit!). "No."

There was a little collective gasp.

"What's the worst that could happen, if it goes wrong?" Artemis whispered. He was back on his feet for the most part, but his wings were still unstable.

"They might be paralyzed. They wouldn't be able to use their wings."

As mutant bird kids, our wings are very important to us. To take them away from Nudge and Pepin…

Fang looked just as troubled as I did. What was more important? Nudge and Pepin being able to fly, or Nudge and Pepin not trying to kill us?

"Do it," I found myself saying.

"WHAT?" eleven voices shouted back.

"Do it," I repeated. "Go through with the operation." I glanced at Fang. "At least for Nudge. She's in my charge, and I give permission."

Fang neutralized his features. "I consent as well."

My mother looked shocked. "Okay," she said. "I'll do it tonight."

{[(/*\)]}

She laughed, tossing her head back. "You're so funny! Oh, I've missed you. You and your humor."

He smirked, looking away bashfully.

"It's been too long, really. What, two years? Three?"

"Well, considering I was out and about and you were a hostage, I think we're doing fine."

She placed a hand on his arm and squeezed. "I think we should make an effort to see each other more."

"Uh…"

The rage was brewing within me. My fists were balled, my muscles stretched tight, my eyebrows were angled down, and I could almost feel the hot steam leaking out of my ears.

"Well…"

I waited to hear his response. He was taking too long.

"Or we can just make the most of the time we have now."

I chose that moment to stomp into the kitchen, a plastic smile decorating my face. I decided to act like I hadn't heard the conversation.

I made my seat right between them, forcing her to move her arm as I wedged in a chair, scooting closer to Fang and placing my hand in his.

"Hello," I chirped.

Brigid gave me an icy look. "Hello, Maximum."

I pecked Fang's cheek. "You wanna do something tonight?"

Fang could tell that I was pissed, because I was acting more like a teenage girl than I ever did. He subtly rolled his eyes at me, and I could see the corner of his mouth twitching.

"Sure," he responded, indulging me. "Let me go get changed, yeah?"

I nodded. "Sure. I'll meet you outside."

The moment Fang's footsteps disappeared up the steps, I turned on my best death glare and faced Brigid. She didn't look too enthusiastic about our encounter.

I leaned in close to emphasize my point. I cleared my throat menacingly.

"Listen up and listen good. Fang may no longer be a minor, but you still can't have him. He's too young for you AND he's _mine. _I wouldn't tempt me if I was you."

Brigid said nothing in reply, so I just stared her down, slowly leaving the kitchen. I hoped she could feel the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

If we didn't get our hands on this bad guy soon, I'd be perfectly happy to kick Brigid Dwyer's ass instead.

{[(/*\)]}

The sun had just set. The villain knew that the veterinary clinic closed at sundown, and also knew that Dr. Martinez didn't plan to bring Nudge and Pepin there until later that night. In fact, the villain knew an awful lot, and just because the plans had been thwarted once didn't mean the villain wouldn't win in the end.

The villain waited until all the cars had driven out of the small parking lot, and all the lights inside had become dark. Then another fifteen minutes, just in case. Time ticked away, and the villain grinned. Everything was unfolding beautifully.

The villain was tempted to use the key to get inside, but decided against it. It had to look like a robbery. So the villain picked up a loose brick and smashed it against the back window, the one that led right into the operating room. The glass spilled onto the floor. The villain crawled inside.

Oh, it was a beautiful sight: The sterile operating table. The sink for rinsing off blood. The computer for documenting the procedures. The lovely array of implements for cutting and slicing, ripping and dicing. In her gloved hands, the villain took the brick and struck the table, leaving a huge dent. Then the villain brought the brick down against the instruments, bending each one of them until they were no longer usable.

And then she turned to the computer. The brick collided with the monitor, shattering the screen, and soon after, the hard drive. Surely, Dr. Martinez had put into the computer what she would need to do to restore Nudge and Pepin to their former states. This would not stop her completely, but it was sure to hold Dr. Martinez back. The ruined operating room and killed computer would delay the restoration of Nudge and Pepin and buy the villain a few more days to figure things out.

After all, the villain was determined to win this game.

* * *

AN: And the villain strikes again! What fun.(: Hardly anyone has guessed who it is, as far as I know. If you did get it, I didn't tell you. :P Also, I would prefer if you didn't say in reviews who you think it is...SPOILERS are no fun...

So I wrote that story I talked about last week. Ya know, the one about the Max/Fang/Maya drama. I ended up not using any names, but you can tell it's in Maya's point of view. I'll probably post it when this story ends...

Speaking of the end of this story...

DO YOU WANT A SEQUEL?

Because if you do, tell me. And if you do, it might be a while, because I'll need to find a plot. But I must say, Max II comes with bucket loads of conflict...

If you don't want a sequel, then my next project will be to finish editing my NaNo novel from last year, and start working on the characters for this year's NaNo novel. Heaven knows I've been procrastinating on editing. BUT then that means I'll probably be absent from FF for a while...

REVIEWS are like FANTASTIC LUCK. My friend needs some. She's gonna be singing in a talent competition tonight, and we're both hoping she makes it to the next round. Give some luck, yeah? REVIEW!


	16. The Burn Out

AN: So, I actually ended up using the very last bit of my break to write. All Sunday afternoon, I worked on my short story for class, finished writing this story, AND even coughed up a title for the sequel to this sequel. Because, yes, I have to write a sequel to this one, entitled **The Battle's Never Over**. That's all I have so far. No real summary or outline yet, just a title that is subject to change.

Ooh, this chapter is a bit creepy. I like it, though. ;) Hope you do, too!

* * *

The Battle's Just Begun  
Sequel to The Battle of the Exes

Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.

**Chapter Sixteen: The Burn Out**

Fang and I got back late, only leaving when we were sure that the flocks would be okay. Iggy and Izzy had insisted that they had things covered, while the grownups were refining the details for the operation. Nudge and Pepin were scheduled to go under the knife at midnight, and my mom would be working alone, as we didn't really trust anyone else. Heck, we didn't even fully trust _her_, but there was no one else we could turn to.

Fang had made sure that I got home safely and then he left. For the first night in a while, we would sleep in our own beds.

When I finally dragged myself out of bed in the morning and trudged downstairs, I went for the kitchen first. I could only hope that Iggy was up to something, and that that something was good.

I was out of luck. Sitting alone in the kitchen was my mother, who was staring down at her coffee, stirring it absentmindedly.

This did not look good.

Forgetting my hungry stomach, I sat down across from her and immediately asked, "What happened?"

She looked up. "Don't worry; they're okay."

I heaved a great sigh of relief, then repeated my question.

"Someone broke into the clinic last night. Sabotaged the entire operating room."

"What? But who would break into an _animal_ clinic?"

She looked at me as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. It wasn't because a lot of people held grudges against me (and I held them right back), and at least six of them were staying nearby.

"I'm pretty sure it's whoever did this to Nudge and Pep in the first place."

I raised my eyebrows. "You're right: it probably was. But we still don't know who that is!"

"All the more reason to find out, and to find out soon."

"And how're we gonna do that?"

"I'm going to perform the surgery this afternoon, in the basement. Marian will be there to direct me."

I narrowed my eyes. "I don't like how the two of you are on a first-name basis."

My mom shrugged. "Trust me, under any other circumstances, we probably wouldn't get along. But she knows who holds the power and that if she doesn't cooperate, there's no hope for her."

I shook my head. "Whatever. But the basement. Are you sure that's…safe?"

"It will be. The kids are cleaning their stuff out of there right now, Jeb is…procuring a lab table, and the entire room will be sterilized before anyone touches a scalpel."

I nodded. "Alright. Sounds good to me."

"Also, I want you and Fang to choose a couple of your flock members to sort of stand guard outside. Just in case anything goes wrong."

"Will do. I'll run this all by him."

"Already done. I talked to him about an hour ago."

"So is he in the basement?"

"Yeah. It was actually his idea to do this in the basement."

That was a bit surprising to me, considering that Fang had been more than a little reluctant to go through with this.

"Then I guess I'll go see how I can help."

{[(/*\)]}

It ended up being Fang, Izumi, Dylan, and me who stood guard. I was going to choose Iggy, but I hadn't been able to find him, plus Dylan had some super strength going on. Fang's first choice would've been Artemis, but he was still a bit shaky after his Eraser encounter.

Conversation was scarce, and awkward when it occurred. I mean, I had rejected Dylan, Fang had rejected Izzy, and the two of them were at that weird "let's just be friends" stage. But at least they weren't like Iggy and Ella, something I could be thankful for.

"So how long are we supposed to stay here?" Izumi asked of no one in particular.

"Until the surgery's done," Dylan answered.

"And when will that be?" Izzy snapped.

"Whenever Dr. M finishes doing her thing,, and Nudge and Pep are back to normal."

Fang and I watched this little exchange in amusement. They bickered more than we did.

We were there, waiting on the basement steps, for maybe four hours. What a way to spend a nice Saturday afternoon. Then, after what seemed like a very long time, Marian Janssen came out, followed closely by my mother, both of them peeling off gloves and masks.

"How'd it go?" I asked.

My mom smiled, though I could see that she was tired. "They're gonna be okay. They'll wake up soon."

"I knew I could count on you," I said. It was only half a white lie.

"You always can," she answered.

"Are we allowed to go inside?"

My mom nodded, ignoring Janssen's gesture to do the opposite. "Yeah. I figure it's best if some of you are there when they wake up, just in case."

"Just in case what?" Izumi inquired.

"Just in case it doesn't work, smartypants," Dylan muttered.

Izzy socked him in response.

I turned to Fang. "Go find Artemis, at least. I know he'll want to see Nudge."

"If the doc okays it, I can just round up the rest of the flocks."

I turned to my mother.

"Sure," she said. "The more the merrier."

And that was how we ended up cramping nine more or less healthy bird kids into a room with two questionably healthy bird kids.

Pepin was awake first. His features displayed their usual neutrality, something I was sure he had picked up from Fang. He blinked a couple of times, looking around at us. Then the Gasman smirked. "Welcome back to the real world, man."

Pepin chuckled and sat up. "Wow. I have, like, one hell of a headache."

"Understandable," Iggy said. "I think I would have a headache, too, if people had been poking around my brain."

"What happened?"

I grimaced. "You mean you don't remember anything?" If Nudge and Pep didn't remember squat, then we were no closer to discovering who the culprit was.

"Nah. I remember lots. I just don't understand how I got from Point A, regular me, to Point B, monster me, and back to Point A."

I looked at Fang biting my lip. I didn't really want to admit that this was our fault.

"You got captured when we infiltrated that office building," Angel offered. There were times when the kid still deserved her name.

Pep nodded. "Ah. Yeah, it would be then. I couldn't really tell what was going on once the fight started."

Nudge groaned, and all eyes automatically focused on her.

"Nudge?" Artemis whispered, his voice shaking.

Her eyelids peeled back slowly. Then she said, "God, why are you guys so quiet?"

I choked back a laugh.

"Sheesh. My head feels like it was run over by a steamroller."

Pepin grinned. "Join the club."

Artemis stroked Nudge's face. "It's good to see you again."

"What happened?"

Iggy explained the situation to her.

She flushed. "Crap. I caused a lot of mayhem, didn't I?"

There was a collective "uh…"

"I thought so. I'm sorry."

"Well, the point is that you didn't mean to do any of it," Dylan supplied. "Your mind was, like, being controlled, or some weird voodoo like that."

"But do you remember?" I prompted. "Anything?"

Nudge shifted her eyes nervously. "Is it bad that the last thing I remember is the fight in the hallway of the office building?"

I bit my lip, only stopping when Fang dug his elbow into my rib cage. "Um, not really, I guess." This would mean that Pepin was our only reliable source of information, and we would have to take his word on whatever he said.

Fang understood this just as well as I did. "Pep, that means this is all on you."

"Huh?"

It appeared that Pepin hadn't been paying attention to the conversation, as he was engaged in a completely different one with Gazzy.

"We need to know: who did this to you?"

Pep shook his head. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Well, we don't have any other choice at the moment," I told him.

Pepin sighed. "I guess you're right…"

"So…?"

"It's—"

Pepin was interrupted by a scream above us. The shriek sent us all running for the door in a mutant stampede. Lux was there first, prying the door open and dashing out of sight. While I was on the steps, I called out, "What's going on?"

Lux stopped at the entry hall, Angel right on her tail. My mother was there too, aghast, staring at the stairs. I heard Ella's bedroom door open as she peered out to see what the commotion was about.

"Mom, what—"

She hushed me with her finger. "Oh my God…"

I saw the blood first. It was trickling down the wall, the source being one of the steps. I could see a hand from where I stood, a mutilated hand with bleeding fingertips. I took a few more steps until I was by my mom, and then I could see the big picture.

The blond hair was spread out across the steps, and it was the first time I noticed that there were some gray streaks in it. The neck looked almost parallel to the shoulders, which seemed to account for all the blood. Her legs were behind her, bent at the knees, with one foot caught under the banister. The fingernails of the bleeding hand were dug into the carpet, like she'd been trying to stop her fall. Her other hand was stretched toward us, as if she was pleading for help we were too late to offer.

Too late. Anne Walker was dead.

Fang was beside me, trying to figure out how this could have happened.

"What the hell." Those seemed to be about the best words to describe the picture before us.

"What do we do?" Nudge questioned quietly.

My mom gulped. "We have to move her first. Then we'll get her cleaned up."

"You mean…?" Dylan began.

"There's nothing I can do to save her," my mom whispered in reply to the unspoken question.

"Who is it?" Iggy asked me softly.

"Anne," I murmured back.

Iggy didn't reply.

Dylan, Fang, Iggy, and Artemis moved the body of Anne Walker downstairs, into the basement. I watched Angel and Lux dash up the stairs, skipping over the spot the body had occupied, and making a beeline for Ella's door. It had slammed shut a few moments ago. The sight of Anne's bloodied, broken body was probably something Ella would have preferred to go her whole life without seeing, and it would no doubt scar her. I was glad someone was going to comfort her.

"Max!" Iggy shouted. "Get down here!"

I rolled my eyes. Sometimes it seemed like my flock couldn't cross the street without me. "Coming!" I called back.

Fang's expression was dead serious, his hands full. "You might wanna see this—" He thrust the paper in my direction, ignoring the confusion on my face.

"It's another note," Dylan told me. "From the guy we're after."

I cursed, avoiding my mom's disapproving eyes. "Read out loud, yeah?" Iggy requested. "Fang didn't do that."

I cleared my throat. "'Check. You won't squeeze your way out of this one. You may have managed to get your flock members back—though only one of them is whole—but this is where your luck runs out. If he reveals my identity, someone else will die. If he attempts to stop me on his own, he will die. If you continue trying, I will kill everyone I held captive, as you cheated me out of their deaths already. If I run out of prisoners, I will start on innocents. And then, I will start killing your flocks. You never know who might die next, so I suggest your flock member hold his tongue.

"'On another note, you don't have much longer to transport the prisoners to the destinations of your choice, before I come for you.

"'This game has been fun, but the time has come for me to win.'"

"Holy"—my mother glared at Iggy, which he seemed to feel—"shark bait."

"'Check'? Like in chess?" Artemis asked.

"I guess. What happens at check?"

Dylan looked at me solemnly. "Check. That's what one player says when he's about to win, but his opponent still has some hope of escape."

"So if he's saying check…" Fang began.

"That means we can still get out of this," I finished. "Where's everyone else? The rest of the flocks, Jeb, and Maya. Go find them."

Dylan and Artemis nodded and left the basement. It took five minutes to get everyone there, Jeb and Maya being the last ones, with Dylan escorting them.

When Jeb saw the body, he made up his mind. "Pepin, I need you to stay quiet."

"But—"

"You heard me: Stay quiet. Don't tell anyone what you know. We're trying to save lives here, not take any more away."

"But Jeb, think! If we let this guy—whoever the hell he is!—just keep running amok, lots more people will die!" I yelled.

Jeb shook his head. "We'll find another way!"

"Jeb—!"

"THAT'S FINAL!" he bellowed, running over every argument any of us could come up with. Silence fell over the room, but it was an angry sort of silence. Nobody agreed with him, that much was clear. But Jeb was our benefactor and guardian, and it somehow didn't feel right to defy him.

What had happened to us?

Iggy looked to me, like he was expecting me to say something else. Hell, most everyone was looking to me. Usually, I held the power, but Jeb was here, and he was making it clear who was really in charge.

"Fine," I conceded.

A thousand unspoken words floated at me from every direction. No one could believe that I had agreed with Jeb, that I would go with this absurd command. They were looking for a sign that I would call a meeting later so that we could make a _real_ plan.

I didn't give any.

Angel tugged on Lux's sleeve, and they left the basement. I averted their eyes, knowing that I would only find disappointment there. The rest of them—Pep, Artemis, Nudge, Izumi, Dylan, Gazzy, Iggy, and Fang—just stared at me, and I could almost hear the hollow question:

What the hell is wrong with you?

I gritted my teeth. "What are you guys looking at?" I snapped.

Only two of them lowered their gazes in shame. Then they slowly started to trickle out, one by one. My mom was silent, making no indication that she had even been paying attention to the exchange that had just taken place. Jeb's face betrayed no emotion. "Val, Maya, we need to talk," he said, his voice hard and callous.

My mom nodded, leaving her work behind. Maya followed Jeb out, and my mom was at their heels.

That left me alone with Anne Walker's lifeless body.

"Max."

Or not. I glanced behind me. Fang was still there. There was no emotion in his eyes, none that I could see.

"Do you think I did the right thing?" I whispered. It was a stupid question, but I felt like I had to know if he was just as upset with me as everyone else. I had to know if he agreed with my decision to go with Jeb.

He was honest, something I can always count on him to be: "No."

I had royally screwed up.

* * *

AN: Yeah, Max definitely screwed up...

Thank you so much to everyone who wished my friend luck last week. She actually got second place in the competition, something she's still trying to wrap her head around, which means that she gets to go to the semifinals. (That's farther than I got in ABNA...)

Also, I'd like to acknowledge that it's April, which means that I find out if I got into this fantastic summer writing program a month from now. I'm really excited to see if I made it. When I was sending in the application, I actually went around with the envelope and made all my friends kiss it for luck. Of course, I didn't kiss it, because I'm sure that would've just brought bad luck. Still, this is an opportunity that I'm looking forward to, one which will hopefully yield better results than the Amazon contest.

REVIEWS are like ACCEPTANCES. I get to start applying to colleges in the fall, which means that I'll be looking for envelopes addressed to me, preferably envelopes of the large variety. Getting accepted into a college on my list would be fantastic, and your REVIEWS are always fantastic. REVIEW?


	17. The Decoy

AN: This was one of the chapters I was absolutely DYING to write. I like it. I hope you do, too.(:

* * *

The Battle's Just Begun  
Sequel to The Battle of the Exes

Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.

**Chapter Seventeen: The Decoy**

Despite what I'd done, Fang came to visit me that night. He swooped down beside me, plopping himself down next to me on the roof. I was unable to sleep, even now that Nudge was back and it felt just like old times.

"Hey, stranger," he whispered.

The night was warm and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The crescent moon shone brightly and the stars glittered like…well, like glitter. It was unusual, because the night had had a chill to it lately. But I wasn't complaining—I like this weather a lot more.

"Hey," I responded quietly. The beautiful silence of the night seemed so fragile.

He put his arm around me. "You okay? You seemed pretty shaken."

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just can't get rid of the knots in my stomach."

It was the truth: I hadn't been able to eat that night, and I had barely been able to stomach just looking at the food in front of me. The rest of my flock seemed fine. I mean, yeah, they were definitely irked by the fact that there was a dead body in the basement. But they weren't feeling like I was.

I had caught some of my flock shooting glances at me, disappointed glances. Some of them wouldn't meet my eyes, or just ignored me altogether. I didn't like it.

All the while, I felt like I'd screwed up big time AND I was sick to my stomach, and this time, I knew it wasn't the flu.

"Things'll be okay," he assured me. "We'll figure out what's going on and get to the bottom of this. It might take longer than any of us wanted, but the point is that we'll get there."

"Thanks, Fang," I told him earnestly.

"For?"

"Everything. Thank you for standing by me, even when you don't agree with me."

"What can I say? I trust you, Max. I don't think I could stop trusting you, even if I tried, even if all the evidence pointed to you."

The thought brightened my day/night. Fang would _always_ trust me.

Now, maybe you guys remember, maybe you don't, but I talked about trust and me awhile back. Like, book five back. And I mentioned that the only person I really, really, _really_ trust is me. And then the person I trust most after me is Fang. The rest of my flock and family follows after that, in no particular order, and I made sure to mention that Jeb does not make his home on my list.

Well, let's just say that at this particular moment in time, my list was a lot shorter.

Here it is, in top-five form:

1. Me

2. Me

3. Me

4. Me

5. Fang

Yeah, pretty sad, ain't it?

Because who could I really trust? My flock was…suspicious. My mom was acting like the Terminator on drugs. Jeb was being his usual self. Ella was isolating herself. Fang's flock was still struggling for its place on my friendlies list.

But I knew that I could _always_ trust me.

Oh, and Fang, too.

"I don't think I could stop trusting you, either," I whispered.

"I'm glad. Because I know I couldn't convince you to if you didn't already."

I chuckled. "You couldn't."

Fang's hand reached up and stroked my cheek, turning my face toward him. I could see the stars flecking his eyes, reflecting their light onto him.

"And you know what else, Max?"

I knew he didn't want me to actually say anything at that moment, so I reluctantly held my tongue.

"I love you."

The last time Fang had said that to me had also been the first. At least, the first time that I had taken it seriously. It had been a starry night like this one, and we'd been sitting in the backyard. We'd first watched the sun set and all that good romantically cheesy stuff…. And we'd made up, most important of all. We'd decided to stop our quarreling and get along like we always had.

Fang very gently kissed my lips. I searched his eyes, as dark as the night itself. The words were on the tip of my tongue…

"I love you, too."

It's always a good idea to trust the ones you love, which means you have to choose wisely.

I'd made just about the best choice I ever could make. I'd chosen to love Fang.

Besides, it's also a good idea to fall in love with a good kisser.

{[(/*\)]}

The morning did not bring good news. I was woken up by my mom's scream, and it's never good to wake up to someone screaming. It's a killer on the eardrums.

So she was screaming. And screaming and screaming. And then screaming some more. I'd found my way back to my room some time before dawn, so I hadn't gotten much sleep, which just made things worse. As in, I was crankier than Satan on the Sabbath.

I groaned and rolled over. When the shrieking didn't stop, I figured I should go make sure she was okay. I stumbled out of bed and out the bedroom door. I called into the hall, "Mom, are you okay?"

I couldn't tell where the racket was coming from, so I started walking toward the landing. "Mom?" I repeated.

To my right, Ella's bedroom door was flung open and my mom ran out in tears. She threw her arms around me, yelling, "She's gone!"

Every alarm in my body was tripped. Hell no. _No one_ messes with my little sister.

My mom was hysterical. I tried to get her to snap out of it.

"Mom, are you sure? Have you checked everywhere?"

"She's gone, she's gone, she's gone. Her room's a mess and everything's on the floor and the window's open…"

I mentally cursed myself for being stupid enough to not have someone sharing a room with Ella.

I left my mom there, weeping and howling by the staircase. I pounded on the door to Angel and Gazzy's room. "Get UP!" I bellowed. "Get up NOW!" I didn't care that Janssen was in there, too.

Then I went back to my room. "NUDGE!" I shouted. "UP!"

Next and last was the boys' room. I kicked open the door, hoping that I wouldn't have to practically drag Dylan and Iggy out of bed today, but I was still prepared to do so.

"Get your asses up NOW!"

Dylan rubbed his eyes. "Good morning. May I help you?"

"Yeah, get your feathery hide out of that bed now! It's an emergency. I need you to fly over and get everyone else. That includes Jeb and the rest of our little freakshow." I pointed to Snickuhs on the floor.

"Is Iggy making breakfast?" he asked, rolling out of bed and smoothing his hair.

I crinkled my eyebrows. "No." That was when I noticed that Iggy wasn't in the room. It was just me, Dylan, and Rollie-Pollie. The sheets on Iggy's bed were all wrinkled and messy, and his shoes were gone.

"Crap."

I dashed out of the room, hollering, IGGGGGY!" at the top of my lungs. I was hoping beyond hope that he was in the house. I could hope all I wanted, but Iggy was nowhere to be found. My first assumption was that he, too, had been kidnapped, but, though he may be blind, Iggy can kick ass. He would no sooner get kidnapped than he would go vegetarian.

So then I stumbled across my second guess: Iggy, with his acute hearing, had heard the apparent struggle in Ella's room between her and the kidnapper. Maybe he'd tried to stop it. Whatever he'd done in the immediate moment, I was absolutely positive he'd gone after Ella and her kidnapper. Maybe he blamed himself or something silly like that, which to me explained why he hadn't called for help. Besides, Iggy was confident enough in his abilities to not always ask for help. (Remember? This is the Macho-Man Effect.)

But the thought that scared me the most was the conviction that Iggy was in over his head this time. He wouldn't be able to rescue Ella on his own, not if there were weirdo ninjas and Erasers to deal with.

Chewing on these thoughts, I tried to calm my mother down, to no avail. She insisted that she was okay and that I should just leave her be. Though I wasn't convinced of this, I decided to see what was taking the other so freaking long.

Nudge was occupying the bathroom, Iggy and Ella were MIA, Dylan was getting Fang and co., Angel was downstairs with Snickuhs man and Marian, and Gazzy…. Gazzy was locked up in his room, being just as secretive and mischievous as usual.

There were enough secrets in this house. That was why I decided that Gazzy, my resident twelve-year-old, was going to have to give up a couple.

I pushed open his door without warning. The Gasman scrambled to put away his project, hastily throwing a sheet over it. I closed the door with my foot and sat down on Angel's bed.

"What's going on?" I asked simply. The time for nonsense was over.

"Uh…"

"Tell me, Gaz. It doesn't look good for you to be so secretive. Especially when no one knows who to trust anymore."

"I know who to trust."

This remark caught me off guard, something I tried not to show. "Oh, you do, do you?"

"Yeah. I've known for a while now, ever since Pepin and Nudge got captured. But I knew no one would believe me without evidence, so I just continued my work."

"What work?" I pointed to the haphazardly thrown sheet. "That?"

"Uh-huh. It's, um, something that Pepin and I started a while back. It's just about done."

"And what exactly is it?" I questioned, growing more suspicious with each cryptic answer the Gasman threw my way.

"Uh, I can't tell you that."

"And why not?"

"Because you wouldn't approve."

"UGH." I stood up sharply. "Whatever. Keep your little project to yourself."

"I'm not the bad guy, Max," Gazzy whispered.

"Oh? Well you're sure doing a sucky job of proving that."

"You'll thank me later."

I rolled my eyes. "Put it away, or do whatever the hell you need to do, but you have one minute to be downstairs."

"Fine," he agreed.

I admit, part of me was seriously tempted to turn back around and snatch the sheet up from his little experiment. But the rest of me wanted to trust in his words and believe him. _I'm not the bad guy…_ The latter part of me didn't want any more evidence to the contrary, and that part won out.

Fang was coming up the stairs just as I was making my way down. "Max, what happened?"

I ignored the inquiry, instead posing a question of my own: "Is everyone here?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Everyone from our place."

"Good. It looks like you'll be getting your wish, whether Jeb likes it or not. It's my job to save the goddamned world, and it's about time I took the reins. I'm sick of Jeb's backseat driving."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that Pepin had better spill the beans, even if the rest of our zoo of crazies drops dead."

* * *

AN: Ooh...the next chapters kind of happen one right after the other, right after this. If that makes any sense... But yeah. What fun. You get to wait until next week! XP

So, your opinion matters to me. You guys know that, right? See, I'm currently making the outline for this story's sequel, and part of this involves a new character. The thing is, I can't decide whether the character is a BOY or a GIRL. If you must know, this character takes over the "Maximum Ride Project," in other words kinda taking Jeb's place. Don't get me wrong, Jeb's still around. This character is just his new boss.

THERE'S A POLL ON MY PROFILE. GO VOTE.

Drop me a REVIEW. Make my day. Make me feel SPECIAL. Make me forget that I'm sooo freaking tired. 200 is sooo close. REVIEW!


	18. The Dead End

AN: I have half a mind to be a really mean author right now. Like, a really, really, _really_ mean author.

Well, I'm hardly ever mean, so why not?

Okay, so I've been in my Harry-Potter-obsessed state of mind for a while now. Deathly Hallows 1 just came out on DVD (*squeal*) and I'm totally bummed that I have to wait another three months before seeing the second part. I wanna watch Harry Potter!

If you're also a Harry Potter dork, maybe you understand. Maybe you don't.

On another topic, most of my classes end in a month, for which I'm extremely grateful. And May is just around the corner, which means I get accepted or rejected...

Oh, and to you Southern Californians out there (if there are any), The LA Times Festival of Books is next weekend (April 30 and May 1) at USC. I went last year and it was a blast, so if you can, check it out. I'm telling you, it's totally worth the drive.

So how's that for mean? Does it even fall under the category of "mean" for most of you? Well, maybe it will when I tell you...

nia llive httuo dnifu oye reh wret pahce hts isi ht.

Oh yeah, now try and decipher that!

And enjoy the chapter.(:

* * *

The Battle's Just Begun  
Sequel to The Battle of the Exes

Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.

**Chapter Eighteen: The Dead End**

Gazzy was the last one downstairs, and he walked straight over to Pepin. The pair of them immediately began whispering. At that moment, the two of them were the most suspicious people in the room, even though almost half the people in the room had tried to kill me or someone else in the room on at least one occasion.

I was uneasy. It wasn't just the circumstance that we now found ourselves in: it was the fact that a member of my flock was residing at the top of my suspect list.

I pushed this thought away and let my face harden into a stony mask. I would not break. It was time for Jeb to do things my way.

"Ella's gone," I said. I could see Jeb struggling to mirror my mask. Beside him, Maya looked perplexed, her features twisting and her mouth dropping open.

"Yeah. I told you this would happen, Jeb. Ella was kidnapped last night. We can only guess that it's the same person, the person we could've nabbed if you had let us!"

Maya spoke up, something rare for her. "But..."

"No buts about it, not with my sister missing. And that's just the tip of the iceberg: Iggy went after them."

"What?" Jeb's mask was cracking, hints of rage seeping through.

"Iggy went after Ella, presumably to rescue her. He was gone this morning, just like she was."

Jeb let his head hang, his hands cradling his face.

I turned to Pepin. I decided I would trust him, no matter how horrible the answer he gave me. "Pep, we need to know. Tell us. Who is it?"

"NO!" Jeb persisted. "We can't do that, Maximum!"

"I'm the one in charge here!" I shouted. "I'm the one who has to save this godforsaken planet, not you! I've played by your rules long enough!"

"I'm your father! That legally puts you under my control!"

"Uh, hello! You must've missed the memo! I turned eighteen five months ago! That puts me under _my_ control!"

"You don't know what you're doing, Maximum! You're letting your personal interests get in the way of your job!"

"And you're not? At least my so-called personal interests benefit others as well!"

"You're wrong, Max! All I've done, all your life, is look out for you!"

That was the last straw. I snapped out my wings, expanding them until they were touching two different walls in the living room. I ignored the feeling of people under my feathers and the muttered protests.

"Oh, yeah? Well it sure as hell doesn't feel like it."

"You don't understand," Jeb insisted. "You just don't."

"Don't expect me to try to understand it now. I can look out for myself. I've been doing it for years, and I've done a much better job than you ever tried to do."

I let my wings sink into my back once more, resting between my shoulder blades. I stomped up to Dr. Gunther-Hagen. "Tell me: Do you know who's behind this?"

His lips moved in some unheard incantation, his fingers nervously rubbing against each other. I picked him up by the collar of his shirt and smashed him against the wall.

"TELL ME."

"N-n-n-no."

I relinquished my grip and went on to his buddy, Snickuhs. "And you? Do you know?"

He vigorously shook his head, afraid to meet my eyes.

"Dr. Janssen? Do you have any idea?"

"No." Her voice was barely louder than a mouse's.

"Mr. Pruitt?"

"I don't know."

"What about you, Dwyer?"

"It's Dr. Dwyer, actually."

"Tell me, Dwyer, do you know who kidnapped my sister?"

Brigid clenched her jaw, presumably upset that I wouldn't give her the respect she thought she deserved. "No, I don't know. I have no idea."

"And what about you, Nudge? Do you remember?" I asked without looking at her.

"I don't," she replied quietly.

"That leaves you, Pepin."

Pepin and Gazzy had been whispering to each other again. I remembered Gazzy saying he knew who to trust. He trusted Pepin, obviously. So why couldn't I trust either of them? Or anyone else?

"It's time for you to tell us, Pep."

Jeb didn't protest again, like I half expected him to. I guessed that he had finally decided to face the hopelessness of our situation. Everyone's eyes locked onto Pepin, our gangly and slightly awkward thirteen-year-old. He gulped, like the pressure was making him nervous.

"Are you gonna believe me? Because you won't want to," he warned.

"YES! I will, dammit! I have no other choice! My little sister and my second-in-command are both missing! So tell me who the hell is doing this, dammit, and when I find him, I swear I'll kill him!"

Pepin was almost unfazed by my furious outburst. "Okay." He glanced at Jeb. "It's not a him, for one. It's…"

Maya stiffened like a wooden board, or like an electric current was painfully flowing through her body. She tried to scream, or make some sort of noise, but her throat was caving in. She was sitting next to my mother and had been trying to comfort her. Maya drooped a bit, before springing to her feet. She looked like she was struggling to breathe, to circulate oxygen in and out of her body. She violently turned around, her fists crashing into the wall. I could see her profile from where I stood. Her eyes were bugged out, bigger than soccer balls. My mother swallowed her tears and grabbed onto Maya, trying to steady her. But Maya didn't seem to register who this was holding her. Her limbs were spasmodically striking out at whatever they could reach, including my mother and Jeb, who had risen to his feet to help.

Maya trembled and shook, her features all a blur. The room was, in reality, dead silent, but it felt louder than a sea of roaring spectators. I couldn't move anything, frozen with shock.

And then everything, every crazy, insane emotion that had been squeezed into that tiny room, erupted in a volcano of cacophony. Nudge shrieked, watching Maya's eyes roll back into her head. Everyone was on their feet in a mutant stampede, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

My eyes darted around everywhere, trying to soak in every detail of the chaos. Jeb's face was aghast as he held his lover, which seemed so odd for him to be doing. My mother seemed to be literally falling apart at the seams. The crazies were trying to disguise their relief, probably glad that it wasn't them dropping dead. Angel's and Lux's mouths were mirrors of each other, each one a little "O." Izumi was covering her gasps, and Dylan was gulping down air. Artemis was supporting Nudge, who had turned away from Maya. Fang's jaw was clenched, the bones poking out at his skin. Gazzy and Pepin were still whispering to each other, as if nothing was going on.

My gaze locked onto Maya the moment it happened: Her body stopped convulsing. Every limb went rigid. There was blood trickling out of her mouth, like she had bitten down on her tongue. Her knees buckled under her and she spilled to the floor in a messy puddle of human flesh and bone.

None of us had to check her pulse to know: Maya Dogum was dead.

I avoided Jeb's melancholy eyes as I spoke my next words, letting the ice that I had buried in myself seep into them. I admit, the words were completely heartless, steely, cold:

"In war, we all have to make sacrifices."

No one challenged my statement, because we all knew it was true, no matter how much we wished it wasn't and no matter how insensitive it was for me to say that.

"I believe you have something to tell us, Pepin," I continued, acting as if nothing had happened.

I could play it off all I wanted, but everybody could feel the change in the atmosphere. There was a dead woman on the floor, and one on the floor below. Nobody took their seats again. Pepin just stared at Maya in the middle of the room. Gazzy was gone.

"Pep?" I prodded.

"The thing is…she can't be dead."

"Sorry, Pepin, but people die; it happens. There's nothing any of us could've done to stop it. Like I said, we have to make sacrifices. And we don't always get to choose who we sacrifice." I did my very best not to glance at the crazies, or Jeb.

"No, I get that—"

"Then what's the problem?"

"What I meant is _she_ can't be dead."

"And why not? She was just as mortal as the rest of us."

Pepin glared at me. "God, Max, would you just _shut up_ for one second and let me freaking explain?"

I was taken aback. Fang, as I noticed from the corner of my eye, gave Pep a look, as though to say, "That was out of line."

Pepin ignored this. "I know you probably won't believe me, because I don't have any evidence, and I'm the only one who remembers, but Maya can't be dead because _she's_ the one behind all this!"

There was a collective gasp. "What?"

"Maya's never been on our side! It's been her all along!"

Jeb flared up with anger. "That's no way—!"

"Shut up, Jeb," snapped a voice. For the record, it wasn't me.

Maya picked herself up slowly and steadily, brushing her legs off.

"Don't look so surprised. If you had been smarter, you would've figured it out a long time ago. But luckily for me, you guys aren't the brightest light bulbs in the box. Now, I have somewhere to go." Maya locked her eyes and me, and then turned to Fang. "You two will be coming with me."

"Like hell we will," I spat.

"If it's hell you want, then it's hell you'll get."

At that instant, it felt like one of those war simulations Jeb had put us through.

But this wasn't a simulation. Reality was far more pressing than anything Jeb could cook up.

* * *

AN: Raise your hand if you're surprised. Or tell me in a REVIEW. And for those of you who aren't (you know who you are)...whatever.

REMINDER: There's a poll. Go vote on it, please.

SEQUEL. Because, yes, there will be one. But it will be a while in the making. Once this story's done, I'll post that oneshot I was talking about a few weeks ago, and once I'm a few chapters into **The Battle's Never Over**, I'll start posting. Author Alert is recommended (don't even ask how long it took me to spell that right) if you intend to read the sequel to this story.

REVIEWS are greatly appreciated. But you already knew that. (Two hundred, two hundred, two hundred...) REVIEW!


	19. This War is Ours

AN: *much happy dancing* We passed two hundred, we passed two hundred, we passed two hundred. Reviews, I mean. Yipee! Thank you all so much!

DISCLAIMER: I stole the title for this chapter from a song of the same name: "This War is Ours" by Escape the Fate (one of my favorite bands!). I also use the chorus of the song in the next chapter. I don't own the song and I am in no way affiliated with the band, other than liking and buying their music. Look the song up if you like, though be warned that it has some screaming.

Enjoy!

* * *

The Battle's Just Begun  
Sequel to The Battle of the Exes

Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.

**Chapter Nineteen: This War is Ours**

I took it all in, the boisterous noise around me. The yelling and the screeching, the sound of flesh against flesh, bodies hitting the walls and the floor…

But I didn't like this noise. Not in the slightest.

_Go._

The house was overrun with ninja people and Erasers. In all the chaos, I had lost track of the crazies, Jeb, my mom, Dylan, and Fang. And worst of all, I couldn't find Maya.

My fist shot out, almost on instinct, and connected with the jaw of the Eraser in front of me. Lucky for us, these weren't the clumsily scary Erasers we had last come across. These were the still "unsophisticated" ones, no wings attached. I was pretty sure they were actually of an _earlier_ generation than the ones I remembered from my childhood. These Erasers were slower to move and metamorphose.

But they were still too fast for my taste.

A ninja on my left. A roundhouse kick dealt nicely with him. I sensed someone coming up from behind me, but there was also an Eraser in front of me. Others to the sides…

I was surrounded.

I cursed under my breath. I was _not_ about to let a bunch of freaking Erasers kill me, but I wouldn't dare unsheathe my wings, for the fear that one of the Erasers might snap them.

I was going to have to hope for the best.

And the best came through. There was a _whoosh_ behind me, and I turned just enough to see Izumi kick the hell out of the ninja who had been coming at my back. She handled another one, before flashing me a smile.

"Who would've thought I'd end up saving _your_ life?"

I chuckled. "Definitely not me."

"Look out," she advised.

And so, we went back to the fighting. I would have to find a way to thank Izumi later, because we had to get out of this mess first.

I didn't see the Eraser coming at me from the right, a few degrees behind me. He scratched me something awful and punched my ribs before I managed to shake him off.

I ignored the blood decorating my shoulder. It would definitely scar, but it would just fade into all the other scars I had. I knew that I wouldn't even remember why they were there in a few years.

"Max! Watch out!" a voice bellowed. It was Jeb.

My eyes darted around. What was I supposed to be watching out for?

She almost got me. Almost. Before Maya made contact with me, a dark streak came out of nowhere and intercepted her.

Holy sherbet.

I didn't join in the brawl. Fang knew what he was doing. Instead, I covered him, stopping every ninja and Eraser that tried to come help Maya. Apparently she wasn't one of those slightly respectable bad guys who wouldn't let the henchmen in on the fight. No, she wanted all the help she could get, the coward.

I realized too late that Maya was more powerful than any normal human being. That realization was escorted by Fang's strangled shouts.

I couldn't turn to help him, not now. Not when there were another three Erasers coming at me. I couldn't—

Fang stopped screaming. Let me tell you, the only thing scarier than hearing someone shriek like a dying animal is to hear them stop.

Because dying animals can screech. Dead ones can't.

I choked back my misery, crying out, "Fang!"

He did not respond.

I watched in horrified awe as Fang soared across the room. And he wasn't stupid enough to be flying through this mayhem. He hit the wall with a very final sounding crash.

Oh, hell no.

I hoped someone would stop whatever Erasers were coming at me. I hoped that my flock would have my back. Someone. Anyone.

I turned around and faced Maya, the bitch who had put us through so much in the past months. She had messed with my flock, Fang's flock, and those close to us. She had toyed with innocent lives. She had turned two of our own against us. She had murdered someone in this house. She had done this all right under our noses.

Looking at Fang's crumpled body, I knew:

I'd had enough.

Maya seemed transfixed by my presence. Mesmerized. It seemed too easy.

Around me, around us, the chaos seemed to calm down. Time itself slowed. Nobody attacked me from behind. No one came at me from the sides. All the Erasers and ninjas had been incapacitated.

That left just me and Maya.

She was breathing heavily, her shoulders moving up and down rapidly. Oxygen moving in, out, of her overworked lungs. A layer of sweat covered her skin.

"It's over," I told her.

"Not yet it isn't."

She looked like she was about to attack me, but that would've been the stupidest move she could make. She was outnumbered and in enemy territory. She was screwed.

I grabbed onto the collar of her shirt. Her hands gripped my wrist. I threw her down to the floor, _hard_. I would swear I heard something crack.

I knelt down beside her. "I win."

This single phrase infuriated her. She tried to stand up again, put I pushed my knee into her stomach. Her face twisted in pain.

"Your games are over. There's no way you're getting out of here in one piece."

She coughed and spluttered, wiggling beneath me.

I didn't look up at my family. They knew to leave this to me. No one _dared_ go near me when I was this pissed.

"It's in your best interest to tell us."

Maya choked for a moment, presumably on her own saliva. "Tell you what?" she croaked.

I pulled her face up to mine, glaring into her eyes, wishing I could burn a hole through them, all the way to the back of her skull. "Don't play stupid," I hissed.

"What do you want to know?"

"Where the hell is my sister?"

Oh, yeah, I hadn't forgotten about Ella. From the looks I saw on the faces around me, I figured that most of my comrades had. Fighting for your life tends to distract you from a lot of things.

Maya looked puzzled. "Your sister?"

"Yes," I insisted. "What have you done with Ella and Iggy?"

"I didn't—"

The back door opened and then clicked shut. "Do you think they noticed we were gone?" a voice whispered.

Ella.

I glanced toward the back of the house, and then back down at Maya. What…?

She grinned.

Iggy and Ella walked right into the room and then Ella froze. Iggy followed her lead.

My eyes locked on their intertwined fingers.

Without thinking, I stood up. What was going on?

"Hi, Max," Ella greeted sheepishly.

Iggy cleared his throat. "Um, hey."

"Where the hell have you guys been?" I demanded.

"What happened? I smell blood," Iggy asked, ignoring my question.

I was seething. I crossed my arms across my chest violently. "What happened? WHAT HAPPENED! I should be asking you that!"

"Well…"

My mom pushed her way through the room, trying not to trip over any of the bodies. She threw herself at Ella, embracing her.

"Don't you ever do that again! You had us all so worried…" my mom sobbed, burying her face into Ella's shoulder. Ella awkwardly hugged her mother back, barely uttering a sound.

Gazzy rushed into the room, his hair ruffled and windblown. Where had he been?

"Where's Maya?" he asked me desperately.

Crap.

I looked down. She was gone.

"Where did she—?"

My question was interrupted by an explosion.

Gazzy sighed in relief. Then, he smiled at me. "I told you you'd thank me," he said.

"What…?"

Pepin came to stand beside him and they high-fived like a pair of toddlers who had just succeeded in building a tower of blocks taller than either of them. "Sounds like it worked."

"Yeah. But we should probably go check…"

My brain couldn't process everything that was going on. "What? What are you talking about? What worked?"

"Our project," the Gasman told me. "We just finished it."

I glanced around and saw that everyone else was just as confused as I was. I crossed my arms across my chest, looking at the devious duo expectantly.

"You wanna explain?" Gaz asked Pep.

"Nah, you go on ahead."

"You see, Max, I knew it was her."

"Uh-huh…" I commented skeptically.

"I've known it for a long time."

"And you didn't feel like sharing that vital information?"

"Well, I didn't have any evidence, and I knew that no one would believe me. Besides, Pep and I had been working on the mines for quite a while, 'cause we figured they'd come in handy."

"Wait: rewind. Did you just say _mines_? As in those thingies you bur that go _ka-boom_ when you step on them? _Those_ mines?"

Gazzy scratched his head, not meeting my eyes. "Um, yeah… I knew you wouldn't approve."

I shook my head. "God, you are in s_o_ much trouble…"

Gaz cleared his throat, choosing to overlook my cynical comment. "So, I was able to mostly finish them while Pep was gone, and he buried them last night"—Gazzy pointed toward the front of my mother's house—"in the front yard."

My mom didn't miss that. "_You made a minefield of my front yard?_" she exclaimed.

"Something like that. Anyway, I finished with the activation switch thingy this morning, and once I realized what was about to go down, I went to activate the mines, 'cause I figured she'd try to get away."

Iggy seemed to understand, despite having missed the entire skirmish. "Wait, so that explosion was _Maya_ going sky high?"

"Yep."

Iggy walked over and slapped a hand on Gazzy's back. "I'm proud of you, you little monster."

"Don't encourage him," I muttered. "And don't think you're escaping the chopping block, mister. Where have _you_ been?" I asked Iggy, glaring daggers his way.

He blushed. "From the sound of it, I missed a lot. Don't you think we should do some cleaning first?"

I blinked, my mind coming back to my surroundings. Nudge, Artemis, Dylan, Izumi, Angel, and Lux were already moving some of the bodies. Some of the crazies were moving the furniture back into place, while others, it seemed, had nothing to do. We would figure out what to do with them later. My mom was ushering Ella into the kitchen, trying to spare her from seeing anymore blood than was necessary. Jeb was peeling Fang off the wall.

Frankly, I was a bit too scared to step outside, after hearing what Gazzy and Pepin had done to the front yard.

I went to help Jeb, instead. The little pyromaniacs were old enough to clean up after themselves.

"Is he okay?" was the first thing I asked.

Jeb placed two fingers below Fang's jaw, checking his pulse. "He's alive. Don't worry, Max. Your mother will have him fixed up in no time."

I nodded. "I know. But…"

"You just can't stand the thought of losing him?" Jeb finished quietly, meekly even.

"Yeah. Something like that."

"I hope you never have to find out," Jeb whispered sincerely.

I admit, sometimes it's not so bad to think of Jeb as my father.

I almost didn't hear him when he said, "I'm sorry."

* * *

AN: I just love Gazzy and Pepin.(:

Much recommended to Harry Potter fans: A Very Potter Musical on Youtube. It's a parody and makes fun of the book, but it's freaking hilarious. There's also A Very Potter Sequel, which I am going to go finish watching.(:

REVIEWS are like BOOKS. Piles and piles of them. Like the books that will be at the Festival of Books tomorrow. They're also like much-anticipated mail.(: I get my acceptance/rejection for the summer writing program next week. So REVIEW!


	20. The Make Up

AN: I am proud to tell you guys that I will be attending the California State Summer School for the Arts this July. EEEEEE! I did a lot of squealing upon receiving my acceptance letter.(:

**READ THE BOTTOM AN. IT'S THE LAST ONE FOR THE STORY.**

Well, I won't keep you. This is the very last chapter, and I sincerely hope you've enjoyed...

* * *

The Battle's Just Begun  
Sequel to The Battle of the Exes

Summary: The flocks have been training for months now, and they're ready to face whatever the world throws at them. Or so they think. That's when Jeb drops the bomb: their mission. And then everything goes wrong. Trust will kill them. Trust will save them. SEQUEL.

**Chapter Twenty: The Make Up**

Iggy and Ella finally did get around to explaining:

It turned out that Iggy was sick of not having her with him, and he'd heard that she'd had a date with some loser. That was Saturday night. Early Sunday morning (like three AM early), Iggy finally decided that enough was enough and he confronted her. He got up and went to her room. Ella was already awake, but when she saw him, she was ticked. They started shouting and fighting, as usual, pushing and shoving at each other (that explained the mayhem in Ella's room). Then Iggy admitted that he was still in love with her and he told her that he was sorry, yada yada yada. Then Ella had started crying and she shoved the photo frame I had found at him. Since he couldn't see what it was, she told him.

And then they didn't say what happened, except that Iggy had gone for his shoes and some better clothes, and, without bothering to leave or note or even clean the mess in Ella's room, they left, going out the window.

Apparently, they had hoped that they would be back before anyone missed them.

Uh, _not._

It was hell cleaning up the front yard. I opened the door, took one look, and yelled at Gazzy and Pepin to get down there and start cleaning, while Izumi and I went over to all the neighboring houses to make sure no one was freaking out.

Let's just say that there were half a dozen cop cars on our street before Izumi and I made it to the first house.

True to Jeb's word, Fang was fixed up in no time. It apparently wasn't as bad as it had seemed. Maya had chucked him across the room and at the wall, but he'd really only hit his head. That knocked him out cold and left us wondering where all the blood was coming from. My mom always tells me that head wounds just bleed more than other wounds, but I was skeptical, and I stayed skeptical until Fang woke up and smiled at me. Just a really bad concussion, my mom said. A really, _really_ bad concussion.

The rest of us were more or less okay. Everyone was kinda scratched and bruised and beat up from our little battle of the flocks against monomaniacal Maya. And those of my flock who _weren't_ there (i.e. Iggy, Gazzy) were injured by me later on. I threatened to throw Gazzy into a minefield if he ever tried to make one again, and I told Iggy that if he _ever_ scared me like that again, I would cook every meal he ever ate for the rest of his life. Needless to say, they both surrendered and apologized profusely.

I managed to talk to Ella some after all that. She told me she was sorry, even though I didn't threaten her with anything (I suspected that Iggy had told her about my warning to him). She also told me how incredibly "gleeful" (her word, not mine) she was to be back with Iggy. I did my best to refrain from rolling my eyes.

My mom grounded Ella for the rest of forever. She also glared down Iggy for a good ten minutes, something that would have made regular mortals (as in, ones who could _see_) flinch and cringe until they disintegrated. It is a form of torture that is banned in most countries and forty-eight states.

You know how guests and fish both start to stink after a few days, right? Well, by that doctrine, our farm of crazies was rotten and rancid. After the whole fiasco of our lives (which, in this short block of time, managed to see two people die and a lot more…disappear…), the five remaining crazies packed their bags, without even being asked, and they each left for their separate destinations. Some of them claimed to be going home, like Marian, Snickuhs, and the Headhunter, while Hansie and Dr. Stupendous wouldn't say. Something suspicious there, I think. Well, truthfully, by my book, there was something suspicious about _all_ of them.

Jeb spent four days locked up in his and Maya's room. Er, just his room now. I hoped he was rethinking his criteria for the women he dated, because the last thing we needed was another potential candidate for world dictator hanging out with our flocks.

Of course, being the sensitive daughter that I am, I knew the Jeb was really upset over what had happened with Maya. I knew that he had cared about her and all that good stuff. I was also pretty sure that he kind of blamed himself for what had happened, because Maya had been, after all, _his_ girlfriend.

Just because I didn't respect Jeb's current taste in women doesn't mean that I didn't sympathize, or at least attempt to. I had gone berserk when Fang left, so I told myself that Jeb had every right to mourn Maya's death, even if she had been the bad guy we were fighting all along.

Still, Maya had been like a part of the family. Even if she had jeopardized our entire existence, we all still felt bad about her loss.

That was why we were standing in the graveyard, paying a priest to talk about Maya Dogum and her wonderful life. There wasn't much of a body to salvage, but we had done the best we could. Still, we were pretty much staring at an empty coffin, one that we were getting ready to lower into the cold, hard ground.

It didn't really feel like there was much to say. Deaths are like that. At first, you want to say something so badly, but then all the words die away, like it's their funeral, too. The words were on the tip of my tongue, until I swallowed them. I didn't even know what I could possibly say.

It reminded me of Ari's funeral, so many years ago, but this one wasn't as bitter. Ari and I had left off on good terms. Maya and I had ended on bad terms.

That hadn't stopped me from coming out here, though. It was a relatively small occasion. The flocks came. Ella was leaning against Iggy, like she always had. Like she belonged there.

Like she was one of us.

My mom went to stand besides Jeb. I wasn't sure of their relationship with each other before I met my mom. All I knew was that I was the product. But I didn't know if they had loved each other or if it was just business.

If I was just business

She put her hand on his shoulder, silently telling him that she was there for him. That everything would be okay. He let her, but that was his only reaction.

The priest was there, too, though he looked like there were a million other places he'd rather be. I knew nothing of Maya's family or friends, but if they existed, they weren't here. A few people my mother and Jeb worked with were there, and I could only assume they had known Maya. Just how well, I wasn't sure.

The funeral was held at the little graveyard by my mom's house. That's where the last of Maya would lay to rest.

For some reason, this didn't feel like a villain's funeral. It felt like a comrade's funeral.

As the coffin kissed the earth, we all tossed in flowers, even Pepin and the Gasman, who were most directly responsible for Maya's death. Then we sprinkled dirt, listening to it rain down on the wood. Like a thousand little pebbles.

"May you rest in peace," the preacher said.

And that night, I hoped we would all be able to rest in peace. Our enemy was at last defeated. What else was there to care about in the world?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

That's what I thought, what I hoped, until I glanced over into the trees and saw a solitary figure there, watching the proceedings. I couldn't make out his face, but as he turned away, I saw his face stretch out, rivaling Pinocchio's nose in length. Ears seemed to grow out from his hair, on top of his head. His hand moved, barely perceptible in the sparse light, but I would swear that there was fur covering his skin.

One of his eyes, the one I could see, gleamed menacingly, and he grinned, revealing long, sharp fangs.

But it couldn't be. I was just seeing things.

{[(/*\)]}

I was up late that night. Everyone else was sound asleep, relaxing like the world had just been lifted off their shoulders. Nudge was curled up against one of her pillows. I was glad to have her back.

I stared up at my ceiling, counting the sheep in my head. My hands were on top of my pillow, beneath my head, numb. There was a song stuck in my head. I couldn't remember where I'd heard it, but my lips moved with the words:

_Yes, I will see you/through the smoke and flames/on the frontlines of war/And I will stand my/ground until the end/till we conquer them all…_

Those were about the only words in the song I could understand, and they bounced around in my head, echoing endlessly. I wanted to think that Fang had shown me the song, but I couldn't remember precisely.

Fang. My window was open, the moonlight seeping in. I could feel a bit of a breeze, caressing my skin. The night was fairly cool, but I could feel the sticky sweat on my cheeks and forehead. I wiggled out from under the covers, trying to let the night air cover me instead.

Where was he? Was he asleep, too? Was he now able to find solace in his dreams, after months of sleepless nights?

My stomach gurgled. Yes, that was jealousy boiling within it. Jealous of my own boyfriend.

I finally lifted myself out of the bed and sauntered over to the window, leaning against it. The cool air tingled. I let my eyes study the night sky, and then I looked down at the world, basking in the moon's dim glow. There was a pair of trees in front of my mom's house, standing tall and proud, barely touched by Gazzy and Pepin's project. Just a few charred branches. I squinted when I was sure I could see someone between them, leaning against one of the trunks. He was gone the moment I focused my eyes.

My tired eyes. I was seeing things. Illusions. Mirages.

I told myself that I should sleep. If I didn't, everyone would be asking me why I was so drowsy while they were so energetic. I didn't know where our lives would be because we had been preparing to face our enemy for so long.

But now, we, the heroes, were missing a villain.

Were we just going to be lazy then? Would Jeb chance us losing our abilities again, like we had in the two years of Fang's absence? We had almost forgotten how to fight and cooperate, and it had taken us ages to fix ourselves up. Like an old car that seriously needs a tune-up, we had needed training.

I doubted Jeb would let that happen again.

I sighed. I was thinking this over too much. I needed to be distracted before I convinced myself that a whole swarm of Erasers was moving in on the house, ready to kill us at a moment's notice.

I pulled myself up onto the ledge, teetering between my room and the outside world. The only thing that could distract me when I was like this was Fang.

I jumped out of the window, letting my wings snap out. The air was heavenly to the flesh between my feathers.

Fang, Fang, Fang. I wondered if he was still awake. I wondered if he had found peace, like Maya.

His window was open, a good sign. I swooped right in, tucking in my wings at the last possible moment. He was in his bed, turned away from me. His chest moved up and down steadily, telling me that he was breathing in that slow, lethargic way everyone does when they sleep.

I stepped down from the window, only to turn back the instant my feet touched the floor. I wouldn't wake him.

But I didn't have to.

"Max?" he called, his voice a throaty whisper. "Don't go."

"You should sleep," I replied.

"Screw sleeping. I'd rather be with you."

Reluctantly, I crawled into the bed beside him, locking my arms around him. I buried my face into his chest.

"What is it, Max?"

"What's gonna happen, Fang? How does the story go from here?"

"I don't know, love." He tangled his fingers in my hair, absentmindedly trying to comb through it.

"What are we supposed to do? And Jeb…what's he gonna do?"

"He'll get over it. He knows that."

"But I mean about us. Is he still gonna prep us for something he won't tell us about? Or is he just gonna let us do whatever…?"

"You tell me. Not too long ago, I remember you saying that you were sick of Jeb's backseat driving and that it was about time for you to take the reins."

I remembered that, too, but I didn't comment.

"Maybe it's your turn to decide. You're in charge."

"But what about you guys? Your flock? I'm not in charge of them. They don't have to do what I say."

"I'm in charge of them, and I consider you to be in charge of me. I may not always agree with you, but I will stand beside you, no matter what. And I know that our flocks will have our backs."

"So what do I do?"

"That's up to you, Max. It's always been up to you."

I sighed, letting my eyes slide shut. "I think it might take some getting used to, this whole not having an agenda thing."

"But you'll get accustomed to it. For now, you might even want to enjoy it. You never know when it'll end."

"It just ended, Fang. Isn't that what Maya's death is supposed to represent? An end to all this mayhem? Isn't the world safe yet?"

"I don't think the world will ever truly be safe. And also, I have a feeling that the battle's just begun. We still have so much to fight for."

I had a feeling he was right. We had a world to fight for, and we would fight.

"But for now, you should sleep. Everyone needs their rest." Fang kissed my forehead. "You never know what tomorrow will bring."

I hadn't been able to sleep before, but I somehow always found comfort in Fang's arms. He never failed me. And I easily drifted to sleep.

It was the last good night's rest I would have for a while.

THE END.

* * *

AN: I know this is the last time I'll be addressing a lot of you. Sequels never get as many readers as originals, and my next story will be the sequel of a sequel. There go all my readers.

But to those of you who have stuck with me through this story and its prequel, and who plan to stick around for part three, thank you. Whether or not you've ever reviewed, you've taken the time to read this story, and that's great. Thank you for your support.

And reviewers...you guys are the best. I'll always be grateful for your comments and your insights. You guys always manage to make me smile.(:

Disclaimer: I do not own Escape the Fate, or their song "This War is Ours (The Guillotine Part II)," which I quoted in this chapter. I also do not own _Maximum Ride_ or any of the characters or concepts in the books.

In two weeks' time, I will be posting a oneshot entitled **Musings**, and, yes, it's the one I've talked about. It centers around Max II, who you have to admit is pretty interesting, no matter how much you might not like her.

Two weeks after that, on June 3rd, I plan to post the first chapter of **The Battle's Never Over**. For those of you guys who don't plan to read it, sucks for you, 'cause I managed to put together a pretty cool plot. For those of you who DO plan to read it, Author Alert me (using the little box below) and sit tight for four weeks. I need some time to actually start writing it. I've finish the outline (AT LAST), and I've even coughed up a half-decent summary:

The past six months have been chaos, but there's no time for rest, not now. The flocks are split up and saddled with a new mission, and this one really does seem impossible. Of course, most things are impossible when you're a prisoner of war. SEQUEL.

Keep in mind that it's subject to change.

This is your last chance to REVIEW for this story. You know, say things like, "See you in four weeks," or "I'm never reading your work again." Hopefully you'll be nicer than the latter, but just hit the button and REVIEW!


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